Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Positively Impacts Physician Assistant Profession

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Physician Assistants supports the many provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that offer tremendous promise in improving health care for all Americans. PPACA makes significant strides in expanding the roles of primary care medicine and team-based health care, expands preventive screenings and treatments to all patients, increases access to quality health care in underserved communities, encourages the growth of health information technology, and addresses health disparities. The law's goal to make affordable health insurance coverage available to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured is not only laudable, but necessary to control the nation's health care spending.

PPACA positively affects the physician assistant profession in the following ways:

• Recognizes the integral role of PAs in providing patient-centered, team-based primary medical care
• Supports the educational preparation of PAs who intend to provide primary care services in rural and underserved communities
• Fully integrates PAs into newly established models of coordinated care, such as the patient-centered primary care medical home and the independence-at-home models of care
• Creates a Medicare bonus for select primary care codes furnished by PAs, and other primary care providers, for whom at least 60% of services provided are determined to be primary care

Founded in 1968, the American Academy of Physician Assistants is the national professional society for physician assistants. Representing more than 74,000 PAs clinically practicing across all medical and surgical specialties in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the majority of the U.S. territories, and within the armed forces and federal services, AAPA advocates and educates on behalf of the profession and the patients PAs serve. With more than 43,000 members worldwide, AAPA works to ensure the professional growth, personal excellence and widespread recognition of physician assistants. It also works to enhance their ability to improve the quality, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of patient-centered health care. Learn more at www.aapa.org.

SOURCE American Academy of Physician Assistants