PPACA positively affects PA profession in many ways

The American Academy of Physician Assistants supports the many provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that offer tremendous promise in improving health care for all Americans. PPACA makes significant strides in expanding the roles of primary care medicine and team-based health care, expands preventive screenings and treatments to all patients, increases access to quality health care in underserved communities, encourages the growth of health information technology, and addresses health disparities. The law's goal to make affordable health insurance coverage available to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured is not only laudable, but necessary to control the nation's health care spending.

PPACA positively affects the physician assistant profession in the following ways:

• Recognizes the integral role of PAs in providing patient-centered, team-based primary medical care
• Supports the educational preparation of PAs who intend to provide primary care services in rural and underserved communities
• Fully integrates PAs into newly established models of coordinated care, such as the patient-centered primary care medical home and the independence-at-home models of care
• Creates a Medicare bonus for select primary care codes furnished by PAs, and other primary care providers, for whom at least 60% of services provided are determined to be primary care

SOURCE American Academy of Physician Assistants