Congress Passes Legislation to Allow PAs as Hospice Attending PhysicianThe Senate voted today (2/8/18) on a major, two-year deal that sets budget caps for FY 2018 and FY 2019, and assures funding for Defense, Veterans, Disaster Relief, Combatting Opioids, and Infrastructure. Even more importantly for our community, the Budget deal contains a package of Medicare related policies, including The Medicare Patient Access to Hospice Act, which would allow physician assistants to serve as the attending physician to hospice patients and perform other functions that are otherwise consistent with their scope of practice. This common sense, bipartisan legislation will go a long way to ensuring that patients can have their preferred care team at the end of life. NHPCO strongly supported this important legislation and applauds Congress for its inclusion in the Medicare/budget package. |