Florida's Fumble on Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners
By Monica Barfield
Full practice authority does not harm patients; it helps them. When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), a $50 billion, five-year federal investment to improve rural health care, it marked a pivotal shift in how states will be rewarded for removing barriers to care.
The program’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) opened on September 5, 2025, with awards announced by December 31. Part of each state’s technical score will depend on its scope-of-practice environment, specifically whether it allows nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice independently with full practice authority (FPA).
This metric recognizes what decades of research have proven:
nurse practitioners provide high-quality, cost-effective, and accessible care across every setting.
Author's summary: Florida's limitation on nurse practitioners' authority hinders patient care.