Compared with previous years, 2024 saw a lower volume of state bills to inappropriately expand nonphysicians’ scope of practice. But that slight drop in legislative activity is not putting at ease the minds of the physicians and others working on legislative issues at state medical associations and national specialty societies, according to new AMA survey data.

In all, 87% of those surveyed by the AMA in the fall said scope of practice was their top advocacy priority, leading the pack of more than a dozen other critical issues affecting patients and physicians. Nearly all the state medical association representatives surveyed—94%—said scope of practice was their top legislative priority, compared with 67% of respondents from national specialty societies.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.