10 Reasons to Oppose the SAVE Act 

•  Eliminating physician involvement in the healthcare team will create SIGNIFICANT risks for patients. 
•  Physicians are specially trained to make critical medical judgements. In situations where seconds matter … those extra years save lives. 
•  Physicians have 4 years of medical school, followed by 3-7 years of residency in a hospital. Nurse practitioners attend 2-3 years of nursing school and extra training is NOT required. 
• Physicians undergo 10,000 – 16,000 hours of hands-on, in-person clinical training.  Nurses only undergo 500 -720 required hours.  The immense amount of additional training lets physicians know how to properly address a wide range of complex health issues. 
• There is wide variability in nursing training.  In 2019 more than HALF (60 percent) of nursing programs were mostly, or completely, online. 
• Eliminating physician involvement means an INCREASE in healthcare costs, not lower costs as widely claimed.  The disparity is because of critical medical errors, inappropriate prescribing, and unnecessary referrals. 
• HB 218/SB 175 allows APRNs broad authority to perform final interpretations of complex diagnostic imaging studies, like MRIs, CTs, and PETscans, WITHOUT necessary training. 
• Evidence shows that physicians and nurse practitioners tend to practice in the same areas.  There is NO evidence to suggest allowing nurse practitioners to work unsupervised leads to more healthcare providers in rural areas.  Even in states where nurse practitioners can practice without physician involvement there has NOT been an increase in healthcare practitioners in rural areas (According to research from the American Medical Association). 
• To increase coverage in rural areas, policymakers should focus on incentives such as higher pay and education loan repayment programs. 
• HB 218/SB 175 does not prohibit and implicitly allows APRNs to perform surgery and procedures under certain parameters.