Featured Questions Highlight

Each month, we feature select responses to questions submitted via our Ask a Practice Question and Ask a Legal Question online forms.

Responses are coordinated by co-chairs of the CANP Health Policy and Practice Committee, and Melanie Balestra, CANP attorney and a practicing NP. The ability to submit questions and receive responses from our team of experts is a free benefit of CANP membership.

Featured Practice Question

My organization is looking for different ways to utilize NPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. (For example, having urgent care NPs triage patients over the phone for COVID symptoms and refer them to urgent care, their PCP, or give them other advice depending on symptoms.) What sort of precautions should my clinic and NPs take for this type of work? There is some concern about NPs giving advice on patients who don't "belong" to them or their supervising physician.

NPs often are employed in call centers to offer advice/assessment and issue orders as needed. It is critical that they have a standardized procedure that outlines this role. It’s also important to exercise caution related to patients calling from out of state. There are several factors that should be considered:

• Unless an NP is licensed to practice in the state where the patient lives, he or she should be cautious in providing care for patients outside of California. Even with the COVID-19 crisis, every state still requires registration or application specific to that state, and several states did not change their licensing requirements.  
• Additionally, NPs should check with their respective liability insurance companies to confirm they are covered for work in a different state - even if they are licensed there.
• Finally, it is important to be aware of the practice guidelines and regulations related to NP practice in another state, as we are not experts in other state requirements and cannot advise on these.

Prescriptions written for patients outside of the state can be sent to a California pharmacy that has locations outside of California. Most pharmacies will fill these prescriptions, but this does not mean your NP license will be recognized outside of California.

Featured Legal Question

I've been offered a contractor position that offers 1099. They want me to establish my LLC within the first three months of starting the job. Browsing through the internet, it seems like NPs and RNs cannot have an LLC, and that I must register my business as an S-Corp. If it's registered as an S-Corp, do I have to have a physician as a shareholder? Can I be the sole shareholder of the corporation?

You must have the following to be contracted with a facility:

• A professional nursing corporation (which you file with the IRS as an S-Corporation) 
• Standardized Procedures 
• A current contract specifying the collaborating physician.

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The ability to submit questions and receive responses from our team of experts is a free benefit of CANP membership.  Not a member?  Become one today!