Access to Health Services Essay

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Access to Health Services is one of the main objectives of Healthy People 2020. As the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP, 2017) notes, acces to quality health care services is essential for sustaining and promoting healthy communities, preventing the spread of disease, and eliminating unnecessary disabilities and deaths for Amerircans. While insurance coverage has been expanded thanks to the ACA (Somanader, 2016), timeliness of care and access to health services are still issues that keep patients from obtaining the quality care they need. As the IOM (2012) has stated, APRNs need to be able to practice to the full extent of their abilities and knowledge so that more patients can be treated and more quality care can be provided. As there continues to be a lack of care providers in the industry, the role that APRNs can play is considerable. The problem in the state of Florida is that nurses are still restricted by state laws when it comes to practicing to the fullest extent possible. Federal and state laws restrict the practice of nurse practitioners. APRNs must practice under the supervision of a physician. They also do not have full prescription authority. APRNs also have restrictions on insurance reimbursement. There are several proposals in the House and Senate that can advance to role of the APRN to help meet the rise of primary care providers.  This paper will discuss the policy issues related to access to health services and how the current Health Care Access Bill winding its way through Congress may lead to a policy change that helps the industry meet the Healthy People 2020 objective.

Currently there is a lack of available services for patients seeking preventive care and treatment, according to ODPHP (2017). Having a usual source of care and continuity of care is very important for patients, as De Maeseneer, Prins, Gosset et al. (2003) show in their research.

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According to the CDC (2016), from 2014-2015, there were 17.3% of people between the ages of 18 and 64 without a usual source of care. This percentage increased the younger the population got. For children, more than 10% of them had no health care visits to an office or clinic for an entire year from 2014-2015 (CDC, 2016). The problem is that there are too few providers able to make diagnoses and provide prescriptions or treatments because of state and federal laws that restrict the ability of APRNs to exercise to their fullest ability.

The entire point of having APRNs was so that they could tend to patients in the same manner as physicians—yet legislators continue to be behind the curve and not realize the opportunity that they are letting slip by because of old laws and policies that are still on the books. As Szabo (2014) reports, the incidence and prevalence of untreated patients is very high: Nearly 40% of all adults with severe mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder fail to receive the care and treatment they need. That percentage is even higher for adults with moderate mental illness. The cost of turning so many patients away is felt in numerous ways: patients suffering from mental illness who do not receive care typically end up on the streets or in jail cells, adding to the burden of tax payers and city managers who must find ways to deal with individuals who really need medical treatment. As many of these patients end up in prison, it is worth noting that the cost of incarceration comes in at $60,000 a year (Szabo, 2014). That is tax payer money that could be used to build roads, schools, and update infrastructure—if only there were enough care givers to treat patients like this. APRNs could help—but they are not permitted in states.....

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