AN ACT relating to respiratory care.
HB 709 revises Kentucky’s respiratory care statutes to recognize and regulate a new advanced practice respiratory therapist credential. The bill defines advanced practice respiratory care as a higher level of respiratory care performed under prospective medical direction and expressly authorizes these practitioners to assess patients, manage care and medications, order certain tests and procedures, provide advanced cardiopulmonary services, and prescribe legend drugs after a bona fide medical examination. It also allows an advanced practice respiratory therapist employed by a health facility to determine death, notify the attending practitioner, and sign the provisional report of death.
The bill also modernizes licensure categories for respiratory therapists, graduate respiratory therapists, and student respiratory therapists, including temporary and limited licenses, endorsement for out-of-state licensees, continuing education requirements, renewal and reinstatement rules, and disciplinary authority. It updates the composition and powers of the Kentucky Board of Respiratory Care, changes terminology throughout the chapter from “certificate” to “license,” and aligns telehealth, prescribing, and emergency epinephrine provisions with the new advanced practice role. In addition, the bill makes conforming amendments in several unrelated statutes to recognize advanced practice respiratory therapists as health care providers or practitioners for purposes such as healthcare workforce funding, critical access hospital staffing, emergency allergy treatment training, and caregiver authorization affidavits for minors.
HB 709 would substantially amend KRS Chapter 314A by creating a new advanced practice respiratory therapist license and expanding the scope of practice for that profession. It would also revise licensure, renewal, discipline, telehealth, and board governance provisions, while replacing older “mandatory certificate” language with licensure terminology. Conforming changes in other chapters would add advanced practice respiratory therapists to statutory definitions affecting healthcare provider status, workforce investment programs, hospital staffing, emergency medication training, and caregiver health-care authorization forms.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall posture appears administrative and professional rather than overtly controversial. The bill is framed as a modernization and scope-expansion measure for respiratory care, suggesting support from stakeholders interested in workforce flexibility, advanced practice recognition, and improved access to care. No formal vote history or transcript evidence indicates organized opposition in the materials provided.
The most likely points of contention are the scope-of-practice expansion and prescribing authority granted to advanced practice respiratory therapists, especially the ability to prescribe legend drugs and determine death in certain facility settings. Those provisions may raise questions for physicians, facility administrators, and regulators about supervision, training standards, and patient safety. Another possible issue is the bill’s broad conforming amendments across unrelated statutes, which could draw scrutiny from parties concerned about how quickly the new credential is integrated into hospital staffing, telehealth, emergency treatment, and workforce funding rules.