California nurse practitioners fight for their right to provide mental health care

San Diego, CA: January 9, 2025: California-based nurse practitioners Kerstin Helgason and Jamie Sorenson have filed a lawsuit challenging a regulation that misinterprets legislation intended to expand opportunities for nurse practitioners. Contrary to legislative intent, the California Board of Registered Nursing’s new regulations require NPs who already own private practices to shut down their businesses for years before they are permitted to practice independently. 

Kerstin Helgason and Jamie Sorenson are licensed nurse practitioners (NPs) who have been providing mental health care for over 20 years. They both run successful private practices that serve vulnerable populations. Until recently, California NPs were required to operate their practices under the mandatory supervision of physicians who charge thousands of dollars.  

In 2020, facing a critical provider shortage, California passed AB 890 to allow NPs to practice independently. Critically, the Legislature wrote the law so that NPs who already operated under physician supervision for over three years — like Kerstin and Jamie — would be able to open their own businesses immediately. However, the California Board of Registered Nursing adopted a regulation that requires NPs like Helgason and Sorenson to first close their existing businesses and work for three years in a group setting before they’re entitled to operate independently.  

“The Legislature understood that California nurse practitioners should be allowed to provide the care they are fully educated and trained to provide,” said Donna Matias, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The Board of Registered Nursing is thwarting the will of the legislature by creating arbitrary regulatory hurdles. Hurdles that force NPs to choose to close their businesses or give up their dreams of independent practice.” 

Represented free of charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Kerstin and Jamie are standing up against the Board’s interpretation of state law that severely restricts their ability to care for their patients. Their legal battle aims to ensure that qualified nurse practitioners can serve their communities without unnecessary and unwanted obstacles, and that laws designed to expand health care access achieve their intended purpose. 

The case is Kerstin Helgason and Jamie Sorenson v. Loretta Melby and the California Board of Registered Nursing, filed in the U.S. Southern District of California.