Athletic trainer bill voted out of Senate health committee

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WKRC) - A bill to modernize the practice act for athletic trainers took another step forward Wednesday.

Local 12's Athletes AT Risk project has been following the bill for the last two years and was at the Ohio Statehouse.

House Bill 176 received its third hearing with the Senate Health Committee.

The committee made an amendment to the bill and then voted the bill out of committee to the Senate floor.

The new bill would allow athletic trainers to provide life-saving care they're educated and trained to give like giving an EpiPen or an inhaler.

“We feel like the amendment didn't change the bill too much,” said Rep. Thomas Hall R-Madison Twp., one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “We still have the same premise with the updates to the modernization to the practice act and I think that that's the most important thing to remember here.”

The amendment states that although athletic trainers can now give an injection, it can't be into the tendon or joint.

We asked local high school and collegiate athletic trainers when they would do this.

They all said never.

The bill sailed through the House – passing out of the health committee with a 16-0 vote and then off the House floor with a 95-0 vote.

The bill was originally referred to the Senate Health Committee back in May but the legislature took a summer break from hearing bills from July through mid-September.

House Bill 176 breezed through its first three Senate hearings and received only one nay vote – from senator Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg.

The bill will now go to the Senate floor for a vote.

Since the bill had an amendment, it will then go back to the House floor for concurrence, or the House to agree with the changes made to the bill. From there, the bill would land on the governor’s desk, where he would have a week to sign it or veto it. If Governor DeWine did sign the bill, it would go into effect 90 days after it was signed.

That means by the time it goes into effect a 30-year-old law will turn another year older, but Hall said at least it will be updated.