The Economic Case for Tapping the Full Potential of Nurses

The debate around modernizing state laws and policies to allow advanced practice registered nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training has been largely confined so far to health care circles and policy makers. But that needs to change, according to panelists at a “Solutions Forum” hosted Sept. 17 by AARP, Cigna and UnitedHealth Group that featured major US retailers, policy makers, consumer advocates and others.

Facing an urgent shortage of primary care physicians, an aging workforce, millions of newly insured and rising costs, top thinkers in business, medicine and government agreed that nurse practitioners must play a critical role in filling that health care gap, and that the evidence supports they are fully capable of doing so.

Nurse.com: National forum: The economic case for tapping nurses’ full potential

Keynote Address

Mark McClellan, MD, senior fellow of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiative, Brookings Institution

Panel 1: How businesses can benefit from fully utilizing advanced practice registered nurses and the barriers that stand in the way

Moderator: Susan Dentzer, senior policy adviser, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Panelists:

Trish Anen, RN, vice president, clinical services, Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council
Randall Krakauer, MD, vice president, national medical director, Medical Strategy, Aetna
Mary Picerno, RN, chief nursing officer and premium solutions lead, Cigna
Kevin Ronneberg, MD, medical director, Target
Andrew Sussman, MD, president, CVS Minute Clinic

Panel 2: What needs to be done to better utilize advanced practice registered nurses?

Moderator: Susan C. Reinhard, RN, senior vice president and director, AARP Public Policy Institute; chief strategist, Center to Champion Nursing in America

Panelists:

Frederick Isasi, director, Health Division, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
Tara Isa Koslov, deputy director, Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission
John Rowe, MD, professor, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Elaine Ryan, vice president, State Advocacy and Strategy Integration, AARP
Micah Weinberg, senior policy adviser, Bay Area Council