Health and Welfare committee introduces sweeping statute clean-up, advances nursing scope language and drug-scheduling update

The House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday introduced a broad package of statute repeals from the Department of Health and Welfare, advanced clarifying language on nursing delegation, sent a controlled-substances update to the House floor and approved a rules docket after rejecting a single ethics reference.

The most consequential item was RS31827, presented by Alex Adams, director of the Department of Health and Welfare, which would repeal about 150 statutory sections the department describes as obsolete. "What this bill does is it hacks through ... zombie programs," Adams said, adding the change would have no fiscal impact because "not 1 of these programs is operational." The committee voted to introduce RS31827 and send it to print.

The committee also considered changes to nursing practice language tied to House Bill 27. Representative Dore Healy said the original bill would change an unclear phrase, "contributing to," to clearer language allowing registered nurses to delegate certain tasks to licensed practical nurses. He introduced an updated replacement, RS32,133, to add the words "appropriate delegated focused assessments." Healy said the change "does not change the scope" and is intended to clarify what an LPN may perform. The committee held House Bill 27 in committee and introduced RS32,133; the committee sent RS32,133 to the second-reading calendar with…