[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1149 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1149

  To amend the Federal Employees' Compensation Act to cover services 
 provided to injured Federal workers by physician assistants and nurse 
                 practitioners, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 26, 2005

  Mr. Isakson (for himself and Mr. Kennedy) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland 
                   Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Federal Employees' Compensation Act to cover services 
 provided to injured Federal workers by physician assistants and nurse 
                 practitioners, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Improving Access to Workers' 
Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Medical services and supplies provided by physician 
        assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) are not included 
        in the definition of ``medical, surgical, and hospital services 
        and supplies,'' in the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (5 
        U.S.C. 8101 et seq.), PAs and NPs are not included in the 
        definition of ``physician'' in such Act, and claims signed by 
        PAs and NPs have been denied by the Office of Workers' 
        Compensation Programs of the Department of Labor.
            (2) In some rural areas where PAs and NPs are the only 
        full-time providers of care, injured Federal workers may have 
        to travel more than 100 miles to receive care that is 
        reimbursable.
            (3) In some cases, Federal workers have been advised to use 
        hospital emergency rooms for non-emergency care, rather than 
        receiving care after-hours at local clinics where PAs or NPs 
        are the only health care professionals on-site.
            (4) PAs and NPs are legally regulated in all fifty States, 
        the District of Columbia, and Guam. Forty-eight States, the 
        District of Columbia, and Guam authorize physicians to delegate 
        prescriptive privileges to the PAs they supervise, and forty-
        nine States, the District of Columbia, and Guam authorize NPs 
        to prescribe medications under their own signature.
            (5) PAs and NPs work in virtually every area of medicine 
        and surgery and are covered providers within Medicare, Tri-
        Care, and most private insurance plans. PAs and NPs are also 
        employed by the Federal Government to provide medical care, 
        including by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department 
        of Defense, and the Public and Indian Health Services.
            (6) Amending the Federal Employees' Compensation Act to 
        recognize PAs and NPs as covered providers will bring this Act 
        in line with the overwhelming majority of State workers' 
        compensation programs, which recognize PAs and NPs as covered 
        providers.
            (7) The exclusion of PAs and NPs from the category of 
        covered providers under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act 
        limits patients' access to medical care, services, and 
        supplies, disrupts continuity of care, and creates unnecessary 
        costs for the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.

SEC. 3. INCLUSION OF PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS AND NURSE PRACTITIONERS IN 
              FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION ACT.

    (a) Inclusion.--Section 8101 of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2), by inserting after ``chiropractors,'' 
        the following: ``physician assistants, nurse practitioners,''; 
        and
            (2) in paragraph (3), by inserting after ``chiropractors,'' 
        the following: ``physician assistants, nurse practitioners,''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply 
beginning on the first day of the first Federal fiscal year quarter 
that begins on or after the date of enactment of this Act.
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