Over 40% of Louisiana citizens are currently covered by Medicaid. Currently, Louisiana has the 3rd lowest acceptance rate of Medicaid by physicians. Louisiana needs more providers who are trained to provide care. Removing the Collaborative Practice Agreement will allow the 6200 APRNs to provide care for the chronic conditions to improve health outcomes in Louisiana.
Nurse practitioners were shown to reduce the cost of well child exams by $600 million dollars a year without sacrificing patient safety or quality.
Nurse Practitioners have fewer hospital re-admissions and can reduce Medicare costs by 38%.
Nurse Practitioners have been used to run worksite clinics saving up to $1.5 million for a business while improving absences and loss of productivity.
Based upon an estimated cost-reduction of 11.8-14.4%, Louisiana could realize a $3.1 to $3.8 billion dollar savings over the next decade.
Nurse Practitioners provide safe, quality care. They have been instrumental in providing care during the pandemic within their scope of practice.
The Collaborative Practice Agreement ties a Nurse Practitioner to a single practice location. This is problematic especially in the case of a pandemic or hurricane. Due to the CPA being suspended by the Governor’s Executive Order, NPs have been able to be a mobile workforce as practices temporarily close and needs increase in different areas.
Nurse Practitioners use a patient centered care approach which supports and encourages the implementation of integrated, multidisciplinary care to coordinate health care deliver centered around the patients needs. This patient centered care includes collaborating with other health care provides, however, it is does not mandate collaboration by law.
The Collaborative Practice Agreement is cost prohibitive for Nurse Practitioners to establish practices in rural and under-served areas. The CPA can range from $100’s to $10,000’s of dollars. In most cases, it is only a financial agreement and does not include any services to the NP.
Collaboration is inherent to the medical process and occurs daily among healthcare providers that do not have forced regulation. Over 50 years of research has proven that Nurse Practitioners provide safe and effective care with equal to if not better health outcomes than that of physicians.
The collaborating physician has NO requirements other than to be available for consult by phone if needed.