Introduced Version, Senate Bill 0206: “Requires a home medical equipment services provider to be licensed by the board of pharmacy.” Home medical equipment is defined as:
Oxygen and oxygen delivery systems, Ventilators, Respiratory disease management devices, Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices, Electronic and computerized wheelchairs and seating systems, Apnea monitors, Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) units, Low air loss cutaneous pressure management devices, Sequential compression devices, Feeding pumps, Home phototherapy devices, Infusion delivery devices, Distribution of medical gases to end users for human consumption, Hospital beds, Nebulizers, and other equipment under rules adopted by the Indiana board of pharmacy.
Licensure is occasionally about protecting the public but seems usually to be more about protecting the licensed industry from competition. Normally you can tell that’s what is going on by the fact that there will be a grandfather clause that lets current practitioners be licensed, pretty much regardless of qualification. This bill calls for current providers to undergo an “initial inspection.” And, if they pass muster, they get licensed. Whether public safety is served all depends on that inspection I guess. Another somewhat non-obvious reason you sometimes see licensure bills is to benefit those organizations who would make money selling continuing education services. (Hey, at least this one isn’t “hair braiding”. That may have been the worst licensure bill I was ever called upon to draft.)
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