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- AMA, CAP Urge Congress to Oppose Legislation that Endangers Patients’ Health Care Quality
The American Medical Association (AMA), the CAP, and over 80 other professional medical groups urged Congress to oppose legislation that would endanger health care quality by expanding the scope of practice of nonphysician practitioners. The coalition asked congressional leaders to oppose the Improving Care and Access to Nurses (I CAN) Act, as it would expand the medical scope of practice for nonphysician practitioners, including nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), clinical nurse specialists (CNS), and physician assistants (PAs). The CAP advocates to protect pathologists’ scope of practice from encroachment by nonphysician groups.
In the November 2 letter, the AMA and the groups asked Congress not to pass the I CAN Act. The coalition stated that “the broad, sweeping bill endangers the care of Medicare and Medicaid patients by expanding the types of services NPPs can perform and removing physician involvement in patient care. This legislation would allow NPPs to perform tasks and services outside their education and training and could result in increased utilization of services, increased costs, and lower quality of care for our patients.”
The bill endangers patients’ health and the quality of health care by removing the supervision requirements for CRNAs, a change that could have devastating quality outcomes for patients. In the letter, the group states that “while all health care professionals play a critical role in providing care to patients and NPPs are important members of the care team, their skill sets are not interchangeable with those of fully educated and trained physicians. This is fundamentally evident based on the difference in education and training between the distinct professions.”
The CAP will work with the AMA to further oppose this legislation.