The current Medicare reimbursement for nursing practitioners is only 85% compared to that of physicians for similar services offered to patients. This is discriminatory in the sense that both parties incur similar overhead costs. As such, such a disparity should not exist. Policy wars tend to be won through legislation. Therefore, there is the need for advocacy. Nursing practitioners should lobby the law makers to amend the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Some of the lobbying points would include the fact that nurses are independent practitioners who are capable of providing quality care to their patients. This implies that they can provide care the same way physicians do. In so doing, they reimbursement should be similar for the both groups. Nursing practitioners also have a role of documenting their input in patient management. This should be comprehensive in order to provide the whole picture of their role. There is the need for such documentation to also have data on patients’ outcomes. Such evidence provides a good bargaining power during reimbursement claims (National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners , 2019) .
The proponents of higher reimbursement for physicians believe that physicians have more training and undergo rigorous education. As such, they need to have more insurance privileges. This implies that reimbursement should be based on the intellectual services provided to the patient. This is agreeable to some extent as the physician tends to oversee the whole continuum of patient care. Therefore, in order to maintain quality health care, all the parties should consult with each other on what is best for the patients. Some concerns on nursing practitioners are that they tend to order for many tests. Consultation with the physician will lead to focused management and ultimate cost reduction. In the same breadth, the nursing practitioner should document his/her role in the whole process to ensure that all the efforts and costs are accounted for in the reimbursement (Wood, 2013) .
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References
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners . (2019). Nurse Practitioner Reimbursement Gap Remains Among Public, Third-Party Health Insurance Payers . Retrieved July 2, 2019, from National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners : https://www.napnap.org/nurse-practitioner-reimbursement-gap-remains-among-public-third-party-health-insurance-payers
Wood, D. (2013, April 12). MedPAC Discusses Reimbursement Equality for NPs and PAs . Retrieved July 2, 2019, from Healthcare News: https://www.amnhealthcare.com/latest-healthcare-news/medpac-discusses-reimbursement-equality-for-nps-and-pas/
