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Great news for VA PAs


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from clinician1.com:

It has been announced that PAs are now in a collaborative relationship with physicians within the VA system.
Exactly where we should be!
A great deal of work went into this and we can all only say “Good job” to all responsible from the top on down.
Great New Years present for us all. Something to shoot for-Let’s make this subjective word a part of PA (and NP) history!!!
Dave Mittman

President Elect, PAFT

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The VA PAs are PAving the way for the rest of us!  Collaboration....YES!

yup. next step indian health service, federal prisons, all public health service sites, all military branches, all critical access/rural hospitals, all health provider shortage areas. The federal govt is the largest employer of PAs in the nation. if they all switched to collaboration instead of supervision it would send a strong message to the medical community.

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I agree with you EMEDPA.  Next step is all federal branches of government who employ PAs  and the rest should all fall in place.  At the most critical issue will be correction of the Eligible Professional designation for the HITECH act so we can reimbursed for our services for meaningful use.

 

The discrimination against PAs was blatant in that piece of legislation. 

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The discrimination against PAs was blatant in that piece of legislation. 

well, after all we are Just doctor'S assistants so giving money to drs. is the same as giving it to us because they will give us our fair share, right? (sarcasm).

interesting aside: I did receive an EMR use bonus this year at one of my per diem jobs. it was $7.63 for the year. the full time PAs there got something like $30.

wooh! starbucks coffee on the govt. for 2 days!

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Awesome! What does that mean for delegation of services? Are PAs now aligned with a single supervising, er, I mean collaborating physician, or is the PA attached to a service?

It still states they have a single collaborating physician, but states that the PA is solely responsible for the care they provide.

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well, after all we are Just doctor'S assistants so giving money to drs. is the same as giving it to us because they will give us our fair share, right? (sarcasm).

interesting aside: I did receive an EMR use bonus this year at one of my per diem jobs. it was $7.63 for the year. the full time PAs there got something like $30.

wooh! starbucks coffee on the govt. for 2 days!

Just think, even the 7.63 was charity as the feds don't pay a penny for PA use, unless it was billed as "incident to" and MD or DO.

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a. Full. Full autonomy is appropriate for an experienced PA in Primary Care, other 

outpatient, or inpatient settings where sufficient clinical competence has been demonstrated in 

carrying out assigned patient care responsibilities. This level may also be used when the PA 

performs lower risk outpatient therapeutic and diagnostic procedures common to the area of the 

PA’s practice. The PA at this level practices with a high level of autonomy on a day-to-day basis 

and requires infrequent consultation with the collaborating physician. When consultation with 

the physician does occur, it must be documented in the patient record by the PA. The physical 

presence of the collaborating physician at the site of PA practice is not required. The 

collaborating physician’s oversight responsibilities for this level of PA practice include periodic 

monitoring of the PA’s clinical activities through a retrospective review of at least five randomly 

selected patient encounter notes each quarter to ensure the presence of ongoing competency and 

medical appropriateness. In addition, the collaborating physician and PA will be in contact at 

least weekly to discuss any difficult or unusual clinical management issues. The PA will notify 

the collaborating physician of any significant change in an inpatient’s condition. The 

collaborating physician will concur with continuing this level of autonomy or recommend 

changes when the PA’s Scope of Practice is renewed or interim changes are requested. This 

level of autonomy is appropriate for the majority of PA practice settings (e.g. inpatient, 

outpatient, Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC), Community Living Centers (CLC), 

Long Term Care, Home Based Primary Care (HBPC), Telemedicine, or remote sites). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty darn great

 

Now there should be a HUGE push to make this the State law as well!

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My question is..if we eventually get to a point where we are "collaborative" everywhere or independent practitioners. What do you suspect will happen to our salary? We would be fully responsible for patients and do not need physician "supervision". It would make sense for compensation to increase, but then again if our salaries are similar to that of physicians why not just hire a physician? What if reimbursement also changes with PAs? Thoughts?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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My question is..if we eventually get to a point where we are "collaborative" everywhere or independent practitioners. What do you suspect will happen to our salary? We would be fully responsible for patients and do not need physician "supervision". It would make sense for compensation to increase, but then again if our salaries are similar to that of physicians why not just hire a physician? What if reimbursement also changes with PAs? Thoughts?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"INDEPENDENT" NPs don't make any more than PAs so I don't see our income increasing with this.

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AAPA finally announced the VA initiative on their FB page and watered it down so much you could not detect there was anything new with VA practice. No mention of the collaborative practices or collaborative physician.  Veiled references to autonomous practice, nothing about full practice autonomy for experienced PAs that is allowed in ALL settings in the VA.

 

LAME.  It will go over most of the PAs heads who visit AAPA FB site. 

 

Another sad day for PAs to have this organization represent us, IMO.

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I talked to President Lawrence Herman about the AAPA announcement.  He had much positive feedback from other PAs on the wording of autonomous practice so some PAs did take notice.  Since June there has been a slight shift in how PAs are viewed at AAPA and they are changing how PAs are described.  I did not get the opportunity to ask him if AAPA would  amend the literature about PAs and include that in the VA system PAs have collaborative and autonomous practices.  It would be a start to recognize the great stride that was made with the VA announcement.

 

Maybe there is a shifting tide happening at the AAPA level?

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