Health Care Dollars and Regulatory Sense: The Role of Advanced Practice Nursing

Our current health care system has been criticized for providing too littlecare, too late, for too few people, at too high a cost. In this Article, DeanSafriet argues that these problems require a fundamental restructuring ofexisting health care delivery systems and more effective utilization of all healthcare personnel. Dean Safriet urges immediate legislative reform to reduce therestrictions that currently constrain advanced practice nurses, especially nursepractitioners and certified nurse-midwives. Advanced practice nurses havedemonstrated repeatedly that they can provide cost-effective, high-qualityprimary care for many of the neediest members of society, but their role inproviding care has been has been severely limited by restrictions on their scopeof practice, prescriptive authority, and eligibility for reimbursement. Eliminatingthese restriction would enable advanced practice nurses to increase accessto health care while preserving quality and reducing costs