Legislative Highlights from the 2019 Regular Session of the Arkansas General Assembly AMS actively tracked and worked 237 of the 1670 bills filed in the 2019 legislative session. The following bills represent some of the more high-profile issues AMS successfully fought for, amended and/or monitored closely that we anticipate will have more of an impact on you, your patients and your practice: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (HB 1861/Act 860): Requires establishments that have a permit to serve alcohol to post a… Read More

Over and over, surveys and focus groups reaffirm that AMS members see “advocacy” as the main reason for being a member. It is job #1 for AMS, no doubt … but what does advocacy really… Read More

Today the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the Arkansas Secretary of State must continue to count the ballot referendum signatures that were collected earlier this year to place Act 579 (optometric surgery) on next year’s… Read More

Safe Surgery Arkansas, a coalition of medical doctors with years of extensive surgical training, announced the formation of a ballot question committee to coordinate a statewide referendum challenging Act 579 of 2019.  The coalition includes… Read More

The American Medical Association (AMA) and Arkansas Medical Society (AMS) commended Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas General Assembly for putting an end to senseless administrative barriers to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder… Read More

By a vote of 49 yeas, 37 nays, and 14 no-votes, the House FAILED the CRNA Supervision Removal Bill (SB 184). To get an update on the other bills we’re tracking visit our website. http://bit.ly/AMSBillTracking… Read More

SB 184 (Stubblefield) passed out of the House Public Health Committee with 11 “yes” votes and 8 “no” votes. It will now be heard in the full House of Representatives on Monday, April 1st. The… Read More

Despite powerful testimony from Charlotte Allison, a patient whose eyes were permanently damaged by a laser used by an optometrist, the Senate Public Health Committee voted 5 to 2 in favor of passing the Optometrists… Read More

Last week, the Arkansas House of Representatives passed House Bill 1251, which allows optometrists to perform surgery on the eye ball and eye lid.  We believe this would jeopardize patient safety and lower the quality of… Read More

HB 1251 (Eubanks) passed out of the full House on March 6 with 70 “yes” votes, 19 “no votes”, and 11 not voting. What this means now is that HB 1251 will go to the… Read More

The first week hearing Scope of Practice bills at the Capitol went well, but the fight is not over.  Next week is also critical, so all physicians are invited to come to the House Public… Read More