Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant Advocacy

House Bill H.R. 5688 threatens NP medical services … bill

There is a bill before the house right now that we need to stand against. Please help in getting word out to other NPs and PAs to write their representative to vote against this. It is very easy to do and will take you less than 10 minutes!

The bill purports, in a quick summary, that NPs and PAs are not qualified to prescribe medications or perform “complex” medical procedures or surgery (though no further examples given) and that there are ample instances of NPs and PAs holding themselves out to by medical doctors to the public.

The bill itself is a very quick read: To see the bill:
http://www.magnetmail.net/images/ clients/AOA_ /attach/BillText .pdf It will take you very little time to look up your House Rep and cut andpaste a letter to him or her.
Go to: http://www.house.gov/writerep/ It will ask for your name and address to verify your representative. Once you have filled out this form, it will take you to a page with a text box where you can write a letter or “paste” text from another document.

Here is my letter for an example, modified from others who wrote before me:

Dear Representative (your rep’s name here)

I am a constituent of yours, employed as a Master’s prepared, board certified Physician Assistant. I have been working in the healthcare field for 10 years, over four of those as a Physician Assistant. I am writing to ask that you NOT support H.R. 5688, the Healthcare Trust and Transparency Act,” which is currently before the House. While the bill, in point five, does recognize non-medical doctor providers are of “vital importance
to the Nation’s healthcare,” it also purports to protect the public from health care providers who are not physicians and makes a number of insinuations not supported by evidence; namely that there is “ample evidence of providers who are not medical doctors. holding themselves out as such,” and that
“consumers believe that complex medical issues, surgeries, procedures and prescribing medications should be performed by medical doctors.”

Research has shown that Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs) provide excellent care and are considerably more cost-effective than our physician colleagues. The landmark study, “Primary care outcomes in patients treated by nurse practitioners or physicians: a randomized trial,” by Mundinger, et al, published in January 2000 in the Journal of the American Medical Association is a sterling example of this. I know
of many patients that far prefer to see PAs or NPs because of their caring and holistic approach to their healthcare needs, taking time to educate them in preventative medicine as well as treating their immediate needs. Patients understand that I am not a physician, yet understand my important
role as a member of their healthcare team. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs) provide a good portion of the primary care and an expanding role in specialty care in this nation. In addition, in rural areas, in Wisconsin and in other states, PAs and NPs offer critical access
to healthcare, a role that would otherwise go unfilled, leading to better service to your constituents and my patients.

In short, this bill is misleading to patients and an unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars to fix a problem that does not exist. Health care providers are regulated by state boards of nursing and medicine, and all 50 states have legislation on the books already making it illegal to hold
one’s self out to the public as a physician. Please do NOT support H.R. 5688. We do not need it, and our patients would most definitely suffer.

Very respectfully,

Karen Fields, M.S.P.A.S.,PA- C
Kfields@PAworld.net
www.kefields- pa.com

H.R.5688
Title: To prohibit misleading and deceptive advertising or representation in the provision of health care services.
Sponsor: Rep Sullivan, John [OK-1] (introduced 6/27/2006)
Cosponsors

(11)
Latest Major Action: 7/17/2006 Referred to House subcommittee. Status:
Referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.