ISMA has joined the AMA and other medical consortium members in urging the federal Medicare program not to weaken requirements that physicians must supervise less-rigorously trained members of health care teams.
The Jan. 16 letter to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), was signed by 100 state, national and specialty U.S. medical organizations. It was submitted in response to
an Oct. 29, 2019, call for comments on President Donald Trump’s Executive Order (EO) #13890, which directed CMS to consider scrapping Medicare scope-of-practice requirements that are more stringent than other applicable state or federal laws.
“These burdensome requirements ultimately limit healthcare professionals, including Physician Assistants (PAs) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), from practicing at the top of their professional license,” the CMS proposal said.
ISMA, the AMA and other consortium members push back in the recent letter, disputing CMS’ characterization of scope-of-practice limitations as burdensome and noting that supporting physician-led health care teams aligns with most state laws.
The letter also refutes a popular argument that loosening scope-of-practice requirements will make health care more accessible and explains the vast differences in the length and rigor of physicians’ training compared with training for advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants.
“While all health care professionals play a critical role in providing care to patients, their skillsets are not interchangeable with those of fully trained physicians,” the letter concludes. “The scope of practice of health care professionals should be commensurate with their level of education and training, not based on politics.
“Patients – and in this case Medicare patients – deserve nothing less.”
Read the full text of AMA’s letter to CMS regarding scope of practice here >>