The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was an act that was created in attempt for the reform of healthcare under the Obama administration. Some of the bills that were introduced included an increase in access to health care, an increase in primary care workers, and services for promotion of health and to prevent diseases (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2018). This bill was a process and had revisions made under the House and the Senate in order for an agreement to be made (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2018). There were provisions in the act that were beneficial for providers, especially advanced practice registered nurses.
Provision 1: Patient Choice Protection
One provision that was beneficial for nurse practitioners were that it protected the patient’s choice and allows the patient to choose what provider they see, and payment nondisclosures were implemented as well. With this provision in place, patients are able to choose their own healthcare providers and insurance is not able to discriminate against nurse practitioners (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2018). This can allow nurse practitioners to see more patients and provide effective, and safe care for patients (Torrens et al., 2020).
Provision 2: Increased Need for Primary Care Providers
The second provision that can help advanced practiced registered nurses is the increased need for primary care providers (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2018). The reason that this can be beneficial for nurse practitioners is that it can lead to more states allowing full practice authority (Brom et al. 2018). In order for this to be possible, organizations, nurses, and nurse practitioners must advocate for this policy for their states as there are numerous nurses that are evidence based practice competent and are able to provide quality care (Loversidge & Zurmehly, 2018).
Follow up Question:
Though the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act has positives related to healthcare reform, there are some downsides to it. One downside is that carrying out healthcare services might be more cost effective for the provider, meaning that they may not make as much money. In turn, this affects job growth and, unfortunately, could potentially affect the type of care that a patient receives (Kaiser Family Foundation, n.d.) With that being said, what is one solution or policy change to the PPACA that a nurse practitioner could propose to not only provider higher payout for services, but better care for patients?
