WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump today ordered federal officials to consider pegging Medicare reimbursement more closely to time spent with patients, seeking to address potential pay disparities between physicians and other healthcare professionals.
President Donald Trump
These directives are among the tasks Trump gave to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in an executive order. The order also demanded HHS develop several proposals related to insurer-run Medicare Advantage, including one regarding payments for new technologies.
Trump signed the executive order after giving a speech at a rally in Florida.
The executive order gives HHS a 1-year deadline to propose a regulation that Trump describes as intended to let healthcare professionals spend more time with patients.
This regulation is meant to ensure that services, whether done by physicians, physician assistants (PAs), or nurse practitioners, "are appropriately reimbursed in accordance with the work performed rather than the clinician's occupation," the order said.
The order also tasks HHS with proposing a regulation to end what Trump called Medicare's "burdensome" requirements that are "more stringent" than federal and state laws require. The president intends to remove barriers that keep some personnel "from practicing at the top of their profession."
My job tracks everything on our pay scale and updates us quarterly on what numbers the individuals see and the revenue generated. They factor in base salary, benefits, cost of “rent” and ancillary services like our MA, and give us an estimated minimum to break even. Anything over we get a percentage. So in theory our base salary can be whatever we can argue. But if you aren’t hitting their revenue goals then they won’t likely keep you there.
I would be willing to bet that rural Georgia is lower paying than Florida. NP's get around 85k or less in this part of the country. We only stay because we have family here.
Well its definitely a big step in the right direction for NP's to be recognized for the work we do.
I 100% agree. The work I do is very demanding, and I often leave for home after hours (no overtime) and burned out. I love what I do, but I also want to be fairly compensated.
djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP
1,248 Posts
My job tracks everything on our pay scale and updates us quarterly on what numbers the individuals see and the revenue generated. They factor in base salary, benefits, cost of “rent” and ancillary services like our MA, and give us an estimated minimum to break even. Anything over we get a percentage. So in theory our base salary can be whatever we can argue. But if you aren’t hitting their revenue goals then they won’t likely keep you there.