Nurse Practitioners Challenge AMA Recommendations on Team-Based Care Reimbursement

AANP Calls on Organized Medicine to Put Patients First

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Kenneth P. Miller, PhD, RN, CFNP, FAAN, President of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) today responded to American Medical Association (AMA) recommendations that in team-based care models, physicians should be lead on all teams and be the sole recipients of payment for integrated services.

Dr. Miller said, "The AMA continues to perpetuate care models that are based on an outmoded and ineffective hierarchy that no longer works. 

"While AANP supports integrated models of care and reimbursement reform, we have grave concerns about tying reimbursement exclusively to physicians-led models and limiting innovation around care delivery models that meet the needs of patients and their communities. Reimbursement and licensure models like those proposed by the AMA limit care access and patient choice, and interfere with patients' ability to continue to see preferred nurse practitioner providers.

"As health care evolves, and providers and payers look to work together toward best deploying resources, providing the right care at the right time, AANP calls on the AMA and all of organized medicine to leave behind this limiting model and expend its efforts and energy to serve the interests of patients."

Dr. Miller also noted that the AMA recommendations fail to acknowledge the recommendations inherent in the IOM Future of Nursing report; and the certification standards that recognize nurse practitioners and other providers as leaders in providing health care.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) is the largest professional membership organization for NPs of all specialties. It represents the interests of the nation's 171,000 NPs, including more than 47,000 members, providing a unified networking platform, and advocating for their role as providers of high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive, patient-centered and personalized health care. The organization provides legislative leadership at the local, state and national levels, advancing health policy; promoting excellence in practice, education and research; and establishing standards that best serve NP patients and other health care consumers.

SOURCE American Association of Nurse Practitioners