Nurses may get a reprieve from nursing license renewal fees this year.

Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Blue Bell, recently introduced House Bill 2956 to temporarily suspend the fee increase until at least six months after the end of the state’s COVID-19 disaster emergency declaration. The bill has been referred to the Professional Licensure Committee. It is unknown when the bill may be discussed by the committee.

“Recently, I have heard from nurses in my district that are dismayed at the nearly 100% increase of the annual fee to renew their nursing license in Pennsylvania,” Hanbidge wrote in her legislative justification. “This increase could not come at a worse time for nurses working the front lines during the COVID-19 global pandemic.”

According to the rules proposed last February by the state Board of Nursing, registered nurse renewal fees would increase from $65 to $122; licensed practical nursing renewal fees would increase from $60 to $76; CRNP renewal fees would increase from $75 to $81; LDN renewal fees would increase from $65 to $71; CNS biennial renewal fees would increase from $50 to $56; and CRNP prescriptive authority biennial renewal fees would increase from $25 to $41.

“The legislation I am introducing to remedy this problem is simple,” Hanbidge wrote. “My bill will temporarily waive the fee increase for nurses and other related health professionals during the COVID-19 crisis and the six months following the suspension of the disaster declaration. Nurses and other medical professionals are on the front lines caring for patients with COVID-19 and ensuring that our medical offices and hospitals continue to function. Pennsylvania would not be able to weather this storm without them.”