Texas, Don’t be a Tex-Ass: HB 2029—Expanding Access to Care by Removing Barriers for APRNs
So what’s up Texass? As a former NP, I can tell you, THERE IS NO BARRIER TO ACCESS for patients to see APRN’s with Physician-led teams, collaboration, and/or supervision!
(https://www.tahp.org/news/553461/HB-2029Expanding-Access-to-Care-by-Removing-Barriers-for-APRNs.htm)
Also Seen on Reddit: (https://www.reddit.com/r/Residency/comments/lvgcak/as_the_aanp_doubles_down_on_their_advertising/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
The title of this press release is an outright lie. Furthermore, the content of this release is rife with mistruth and outright lies. It’s an agenda. It’s propaganda. It’s a strawman argument that somehow removing physician collaboration will increase access to care. The strawman being full practice authority (FPA). APRN’s quite frankly need to sit down and shut up. As a former RN for 15 yrs, then Psych NP for 10 yrs, I think I can say that. Nurse practitioner education never qualified me to practice independent of physician supervision and/or collaboration. Even when I had a decade of NP experience. For an APRN to say otherwise, they have a case of cephlorectal interpolation. Furthermore, look at ridiculous interpretation of a study they cite (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15040439/) – they selectively took a quote out of context from the study and quoted:
“compared with primary care physicians overall, nurse practitioners and certified nurse-midwives also tended to have a greater proportion of their members in rural areas and Health Professional Shortage Areas.”
Grumbach K, Hart LG, Mertz E, Coffman J, Palazzo L. Who is caring for the underserved? A comparison of primary care physicians and nonphysician clinicians in California and Washington. Ann Fam Med. 2003 Jul-Aug;1(2):97-104. doi: 10.1370/afm.49. PMID: 15040439; PMCID: PMC1466573.
I hate when they do that. The study then says:
“This study was a cross-sectional analysis of 1998 administrative and survey data on primary care clinicians (family physicians, general internists, general pediatricians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse-midwives) in California and Washington.”
Note how the study differentiated PCP’s with internal medicine and family practice. Note the data set from 1998!!
&
“Family physicians were much more likely than other primary care physicians to work in rural areas and HPSAs”
See the purposeful misreporting or misinterpretation of the authors of the press release? I hate when they do that. The study then concluded:
“Nonphysician primary care clinicians and family physicians have a greater propensity to care for underserved populations than do primary care physicians in other specialties.”
We need more Family Medicine residency spots. Hello.
The swearing and all caps suggest you still need supervision.
In case you missed it, here’s article number eight bazillion, about how costs are higher for hospital-based physicians, versus independent physicians.
“Medicare payments for physician services were, on average, $114,000 per doctor per year higher when billed by a hospital than when billed by an independent physician practice, found a study of Medicare claims data from 2010-2016 in Health Services Research.”
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/946677
If my 99214 visits are too frequent compared to 99213 visits, by an insurance company’s arbitrary and capricious standards, the insurance company is quick to jump all over e.
Yet the hospital physician bills over a hundred grand a year more than I bill for the same package of services. This has been known for years, and the insurance companies do nothing.