Nurse practitioners would play a key role if healthcare reform passes
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
August 5, 2009
If any sort of healthcare form passes this year, caring for the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans will present a new set of challenges to the existing healthcare system, reports Time magazine. The nation may look to nurse practitioners, already part of the healthcare system, to step up and care for more patients. An existing primary care physician shortage coupled with this influx of new patients would create a need for primary caregivers—one that medical schools cannot currently meet. Only 10% of the graduating class of medical schools in 2008 indicated they were going into primary care.
Depending on state law, nurse practitioners can do many of the same things that physicians can do, and they are reimbursed at a rate of 80% of what physicians are reimbursed by Medicare, making their labor cheaper. Additionally, nurse practitioners are already practicing what seems to be a buzzword in healthcare today and a wave of the future—patient-centered care.
