There are currently 2 bills before the House and Senate, both of these bills are stuck in the House and Senate's Health and Human Services Committees.

THERE ARE ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT IN THE SESSION BEFORE THESE BILLS WILL DIE AND WE LOSE THOSE THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY PROVIDE.  WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MOVE THEM FORWARD !!!

Both of these bills are specifically to help PAs in Rhode Island. 

The bills are H-7935 and S-2868 which are both updates to our PA Practice Act. The new changes removes restrictive covenants that employers may impose, improves the definition of collaboration, and allows us to clear student athletes for return to play after injury or concussion. (The law does not presently allow us to do this). It also fixes a problem with CME that aligns your CME over a 2 year period.   

THESE BILLS WILL NOT PASS BY THEMSELVES. THEY NEED YOU!!

THERE IS NOTHING MORE POWERFUL IN PASSING A BILL THEN THE SENATORS or REPRESENTATIVES KNOWING THAT THEIR CONSTITUENTS SUPPORT A PIECE OF LEGISLATION.  

HERE'S WHERE YOU COME IN. 

All we need from you is to reach out with an email. We have outlined what you need to do.  

Please send an email to each:

1) Your Representative asking them to help move and pass H-7935 and 

2) Your Senator asking them to help move and pass S-2868

PLEASE DO THIS TODAY AND PLEASE COPY info@RIAPA.org 

Subject: Senate Bills S-2868 and House Bill H-7935

Dear Representative  (NAME) and Senator (NAME) ,

I'm writing as a constituent and a physician assistant to ask for your support for Senate bills S-2868 along with House bill H-7935 which are in front of the HHS committee. S-2868 and House companion bill H-7935 both include important updates to the 2019 PA Modernization Act. Passage of this bill will help improve patient access to care and remove the challenges of restrictive covenants. 

Thank you for your consideration of this legislation. 

Respectfully,

(YOUR NAME)

(YOUR ADDRESS)

The House Health and Human Services Committee unanimously passed bill 7740 which puts restrictions on sedation.  The representatives on the committee were not at all pleased about having to deal with this bill and felt that it should have been handled by regulation in the Department of Health.  The CRNAs seems to have burned a lot of bridges and spent a boatload of money to get this passed.  Luckily, with through close collaboration with Brown University Health, we were able to exclude PAs from the act entirely preserving the privilege for PAs to provide sedation in any situations they are trained and credentialed for.  The bill still has to pass the House and then onto the Senate where things could still fail to move forward.  Check back for further updates.   If you would like to watch the committee meeting, the recording is here.

Capitol TV Committee Video

It has been an absolutely crazy session with an incredible amount of back and forth and angst regarding both the sedation bills and regulations which would have effectively stripped PAs of the ability to sedate patients in almost any setting.  The RIAPA has been a vocal force for PAs and have represented you with daily meetings as well as ongoing collaboration with HARI, BUH, CNE, RIMS, RISNA, NPARI, ENARI, RISA, and RIACEP.  There is currently a new substitute bill in the House that will essentially remove PAs from the fray and allow us to keep doing what we are doing....for now.  The reason we say "for now" is because the DOH Regulations are still being drafted and could still change how we practice.  More to come.  

If you are interested in reading the substitute bill, you can find it here.  

Read the Substitute Bill Here

The Department of Health had a public comment forum Thursday May 14th to discuss proposed regulations regarding the save use of sedation.  RIAPA was represented by myself and Jim Carney.  Similar to the legislative bills, one of our biggest concerns was that once again, PAs were left out of the regulations.  While some may see that as a positive "well if we aren't in there it won't affect us" while others (our legal council and the AAPA) felt strongly otherwise, stating if we aren't included then we cant do it.   The meeting was attended by representatives from RISNA, NPARI, RIANA, Care New England as well as NPs and CRNAs.  I didnt see any other PAs there.  The Department of Health was open to questions and feedback and the meeting felt productive on some fronts but there is clearly a lot of friction as to who can safely provide sedation.  If the House and Senate pass a bill that the Governor signs than the regulations become meaningless and the new law trumps everything.  So what does this all mean?  Any PA that provides any level or sedation in any setting is at risk of losing that privilege.  Stay engaged and stay supportive.

In a disappointing turn of events.  PAs lost miserably in the Senate.  The Senate Bill 3184 morphed into a different version which was, in theory, designed to appease the majority but still included major language flaws.  The biggest flaw was that it still excluded PAs as providers able to provide sedation in RI.  Other flaws limited where sedation could be used and who exactly could use it.  Why did the bill pass?  There are several reasons but the most important one is that the CRNAs are a strong vocal group that supports their organization.  What happens now? The bill moves over to the House to be voted on.  Since there is still a House bill 7740 that is different than the Senate bill, the House has to reconcile, merge or harmonize the differences between these two bills and then vote on it.  If the resulting bill is different than the Senate bill then the senate must vote on that bill again before it can go to the Governor.  We are watching this very closely. 

4/27/26  The Senate Version of the sedation bill is being heard by the Senate committee this Thursday. 4/30 

The RIAPA OPPOSES This Bill

This bill would essentially restrict or prohibit PAs in multiple settings from providing mild or moderate conscious sedation except for very limited emergency situations.  If you provide mild sedation for outpatient procedures or inpatient procedures (not in a critical care setting) then this bill would prohibit you from providing any sedation. 

Click on the event below  for more information

• Senate Hearing on the Sedation Bill <<<<<<<<<<
  Thursday, April 30, 2026 4:30 PM 
   
  State House - Room 211
• Here is the text of the Senate Bill >> Click Here

4/23/26  We are actively working on this and will have more information on what you can do.  In the meantime, save May 14th at 2:00pm for Public Comment on the regulations at the Department of Health.  

You can view the draft regulations here >>>  RI DOH DRAFT SEDATION REGULATIONS