SNMMI-TS State Advocacy Update

January 25, 2018

SNMMI has been working with state Technologist Advocacy Group (TAG) representatives to promote licensure and the new Nuclear Medicine Technologist (NMT) Scope of Practice and Performance Standards.

Last year, the society successfully opposed bills in West Virginia and New Hampshire that would have ended licensure. In Illinois, however, the state’s budget crisis led to the elimination of the oversight board, so more work lies ahead there. In some states, SNMMI successfully fought off encroachment by other healthcare providers, like nurse practitioners in Texas and Oregon, who wanted the authority to perform nuclear medicine procedures without adequate training or experience. In other states, including Vermont and North Carolina, the society worked to “clean-up” statutes and regulations that imposed unnecessary restrictions on NMTs. In California, SNMMI collaborated with other groups to block, for now, a mandate that NMTs in training be paid the minimum wage, which would have eliminated the training programs there.

Current Efforts

As the 2018 state legislative cycle gets underway, we are already seeing action in Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Vermont.

• In Vermont, TAG representative Kenneth Allen, BS, MBA, NMTCB NCT, the SNMMI-TS TAG representative there, is working with a member of the State House to modify a bill that includes additional and unnecessary requirements for NMTs. It would require NMTs to have ARRT-CT or NMTCB-PET certification to do attenuation correction on hybrid imaging equipment. 

• In Alabama, TAG representative Krystle Worthington Glasgow, CNMT, NMTCB(CT), NMAA, is working with the Alabama Society of Radiologic Technologists to support licensure bills that have been introduced. 

• In Pennsylvania, TAG representative Cheryl Rickley, CNMT, is pushing for passage of a licensure bill that has been introduced, and the society will be calling on members there for support. 

• In Mississippi, TAG representative Nikki Hutson, MBA, RT(R)(N), CNMT, has been working with the state representative who introduced a bill affecting NMTs. 

• In North Carolina, SNMMI is working with TAG representative Cindi Luckett-Gilbert, MHA, CNMT, RSO, FSNMMI-TS to seek modifications to restrictive regulations and/or new legislation that would remove them. 

• SNMMI is also working on suggested modifications to licensure bills in Oklahoma and Missouri. 

More states will surely be added to this list, and SNMMI-TS will be reaching out to members as needed, encouraging contact with elected representatives to advocate for professional standards, scope of practice and, especially, patients. An NMT Model Practice Act is nearing completion and will serve as a template to share with states as we continue advocacy efforts.