Lawmakers Advance Four Rural Health Bills During Special Session

(Bismarck, ND) — Four of the seven proposed rural healthcare bills are moving forward in the North Dakota legislature. Lawmakers in the state originally proposed 18 bills for consideration at a special session that began on Wednesday before narrowing the list down to seven. Some of the mandates in the bills include funding to administer the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, metabolic nutritional training for physicians, having the state join a physician assistant licensure compact, and an expansion of laboratory testing and prescriptive authority for pharmacists. The state was awarded nearly 200-million dollars for rural healthcare funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act but lawmakers must designate the projects by the end of September. Lawmakers estimate the four bills that made it through committee will cost around 34-million dollars.