Lawmaking and Health Policy
Lawmaking and Health Policy Health care is regulated for the public good, to ensure quality to a public that is powerless to assert quality control as individuals. That is the…
Practice Ownership: Legal and Business Considerations for the Nurse Practitioner Owner
Practice Ownership: Legal and Business Considerations for the Nurse Practitioner Owner Some state law is more conducive to NP practice ownership than others because of collaboration requirements, or lack thereof,…
The Employed Nurse Practitioner
The Employed Nurse Practitioner The majority of NPs are employed by others, rather than self-employed. The advantages of employment are: A built-in collaborative agreement, in states where these are required…
Reimbursement for Nurse Practitioner Services
Reimbursement for Nurse Practitioner Services Except for a minority of patients who pay their own medical bills, every encounter between an NP and a patient has a third-party participant—the payer….
Risk Management
Risk Management Risk management is what one does to avoid problems later. Compare risk management to preventive medicine; risk management is preventive law. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are at risk for…
Negligence and Malpractice
Negligence and Malpractice Nurse practitioners (NPs) carrying out their daily routines have one thing that appears on their “to do” lists every single day: “Do no harm.” Nevertheless, when an…
Hospital Privileges
Hospital Privileges It was a tradition in the medical field that a patient who needed to be admitted to a hospital was admitted through the patient’s primary physician, who visited…
Prescribing
Prescribing Nurse practitioners (NPs) in 50 states and the District of Columbia have the legal authority to prescribe. The independence of NPs’ prescriptive authority varies widely, and, in several states,…
Federal Regulation of the Nurse Practitioner Profession
Federal Regulation of the Nurse Practitioner Profession The federal government regulates NP practice through statutes enacted by Congress and regulations, policies, and guidelines written by federal agencies. Federal law may…
State Regulation of Nurse Practitioner Practice
State Regulation of Nurse Practitioner Practice The law governing nurse practitioner (NP) definition, scope of practice, prescriptive authority, and requirement of physician collaboration, if any, may be enacted by a…
