House committee approves one-word amendment to nurse-midwife bill to remove 'accredited' hospital language

During a meeting of the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, members approved an amendment to a bill concerning certified nurse midwives that removes the word "accredited" from a provision about admitting and discharging patients from hospitals.

Representative Bentley, sponsor of the amendment, told committee members he intended to have the change engrossed before the hearing but did not, and said the amendment simply removes the word to avoid excluding hospitals that are licensed but not accredited. "I, just wanna apologize. I thought I had an amendment already done and engrossed before we got here to committee, and I didn't double check, so it was not. So I did I failed to get a 1 word amendment done," Bentley said. He later explained the change: "If we look at the very first page at the bottom, we are, admitting a discharge patients from a licensed hospital. I had the word accredited in there. Many of our hospitals all of our hospitals are licensed, but some of them are not accredited. So I want to remove the word accredited to make sure we can do as many hospitals as possible. So this simply removes the word accredited."

Committee members asked clarifying questions about the difference between licensing and accreditation; Bentley described accreditation as "a bit of a higher standard" that some hospitals pursue but said most hospitals must be licensed by the state health department. He also noted that the amendment does not compel any hospital to grant privileges: "again, I just wanna real quickly remind you that, if it's granted privileges from the hospital, this doesn't force any hospital to" (comment truncated in the transcript).

After no public testimony for or against the amendment, Representative Pilkington moved that the bill do pass as amended. With no further discussion the committee voted and the chair announced the motion carried and the bill passed.