Tennessee Senate Bill SB0332

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/27/25
• Engrossed: 3/31/25
• Enrolled: 4/8/25
• Passed: 4/21/25
• Chaptered: 4/29/25

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4; Title 8; Title 14; Title 29; Title 33; Title 37; Title 39; Title 53; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71, relative to health care.

Summary

SB 332 requires the Tennessee Board of Nursing to create and administer an annual survey for nurse practitioners who have received a certificate of fitness and opted into email communications. The survey collects information about the nurse practitioner’s specialty, the specialty and location of each collaborating physician, and how often those physicians are physically on-site with the nurse practitioner at the same practice location. The bill also directs the board to send reminder communications at least quarterly to nurse practitioners who have not completed the survey and allows the survey and reminders to be delivered electronically. By December 31 each year, the board must submit a report to the chairs of the House and Senate health committees containing aggregated, de-identified data on survey response rates and collaboration patterns, including the percentage of nurse practitioners with collaborating physicians in the same specialty and how frequently those physicians are on-site. The bill defines “specialty” for both nurse practitioners and physicians for purposes of the reporting requirement.

Impact

SB 332 adds a new reporting and data-collection requirement to Tennessee Code Annotated Title 63 governing nursing regulation. It does not directly change scope-of-practice rules or collaboration requirements, but it creates an ongoing administrative obligation for the Board of Nursing and a new source of statewide data on nurse practitioner-physician collaboration in specialty practice settings. The report is intended to inform the General Assembly and may influence future health care policy or licensing changes affecting nurse practitioners, collaborating physicians, and the Board of Nursing.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have been broadly supported and moved through the legislature with little opposition. It was recommended for passage unanimously by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, passed the Senate floor 30-0 on third consideration, and then passed the House 92-1 before being enacted. The voting history suggests strong bipartisan agreement that the state should gather more information about nurse practitioner collaboration arrangements.

Contention

There is little visible contention in the available record, and no committee transcript excerpts are provided. The only likely area of policy sensitivity is that the bill focuses on nurse practitioner collaboration with physicians, including specialty alignment and on-site presence, which may be of interest to stakeholders in nursing, medicine, and health care regulation. However, the near-unanimous votes indicate that any disagreement was limited or not publicly prominent in the available materials.