SB 921 Summary

• Expands the scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) by allowing them to provide psychiatric mental health services and emergency treatment for children when certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a psychiatric mental health provider.

• Authorizes APRNs to serve as primary medical providers in workers' compensation cases, allowing them to attend injured employees and direct their medical care alongside physicians and surgeons.

• Updates health insurance coverage requirements to include APRNs in benefits for mental health services, diabetes education, and other services previously limited to physicians and psychologists.

• Adds APRNs to state laboratory services provisions, allowing them to request laboratory tests from the Department of Public Health, and includes them in various healthcare confidentiality and patient record access statutes.

• Makes technical changes to terminology throughout Connecticut's general statutes to recognize APRNs as qualified healthcare providers in roles previously reserved for or exclusive to physicians.