By Ripon Advance News Service | February 19, 2025
U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) proposed bipartisan legislation on Feb. 13 to eliminate any Medicare and Medicaid barriers that restrict Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) from practicing their full state-approved education and clinical training.
“As our nation faces a nursing shortage, it is only further hurting America’s healthcare system by prohibiting APRNs from providing patient care to the fullest extent of their education,” said Rep. Joyce, co-chair of the Congressional Nursing Caucus.
APRNs are nurses prepared at the master or doctoral level to provide primary, acute, chronic, and specialty care to all patients in all settings. They are qualified to treat and diagnose illnesses, advise the public on health issues, manage chronic diseases, order and interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe medication, and direct non-pharmacologic treatments for patients, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmakers.
Currently, several federal statutes and regulations, as well as certain state practice acts and institutional rules, require physician oversight and limit APRN practice, reducing access to care, creating disruptions in care, increasing the cost of care, and undermining efforts to improve the quality of care, the summary says.
Rep. Joyce sponsored the Improving Care and Access to Nurses (I CAN) Act, H.R. 1317, alongside five original cosponsors, including U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), to ensure that the federal government honors state law to ensure that Medicare and Medicaid patients living in states where nurses have already been granted full practice authority are permitted to choose to seek care from a nurse practitioner, the summary says.
“The I CAN Act would eliminate unnecessary federal barriers to increase access to care and strengthen patient choice,” said Rep. Joyce. “In doing so, my colleagues and I will expand access to care, especially in rural communities, while lowering patient costs.”
Rep. Bonamici, also co-chair of the Congressional Nursing Caucus, said the nation’s healthcare system benefits from a wide range of services and care provided to patients by nurse practitioners and other ARPNs. “Unfortunately, outdated restrictions limit the care APRNs can provide for Medicare and Medicaid patients, depriving millions of Americans from timely access to health care,” she said.
The American Nurses Association, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology, and the American College of Nurse-Midwives endorsed the measure, a version of which has also been introduced in the U.S. Senate.
