Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

S.59/H.R.2066 is a boon to Medicaid recipients, too

Advanced practice registered nurses could start seeing more low-income patients if a bill currently in House and Senate committees gets the green light.

The Medicaid Advanced Practice Nurses and Physician Assistants Access Act of 2007 (S.59), introduced by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and co-sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tim Johnson (D-SD), "amends title XIX of the Social Security Act to improve access to advanced practice nurses and physician assistants under the Medicaid Program," according to the bill text.

The companion House bill, H.R.2066, introduced April 26 by Rep. John Olver (D-MA-1) and 43 cosponsors, is currently in the House Subcommittee on Health.

The Senate version is with the Committee on Finance.

The measure has won the enthusiastic support of nurse organizations, including the American Nurses Association, which sees it as helping to "reduce barriers to practice in the Medicaid program."

"S.59 would expand patient access to quality health care by requiring states to offer Medicaid coverage for primary health-care services provided by advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs)," says the ANA.

The act would also "eliminate the option that state Medicaid plans currently have of denying APRNs as primary care case managers," the ANA says.