1.This Act may be cited as the
Improving Access to Workers’
Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act
.
2.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.
3.Inclusion of
physician assistants and nurse practitioners in Federal employees’ compensation
Act
(a)Section
8101 of title 5, United States Code, is amended—
(1)in paragraph (3),
by inserting other eligible providers,
after
chiropractors,
;
(2)by adding at the
end the following:
(21)other
eligible provider means a nurse practitioner or physician assistant
within the scope of their practice as defined by State
law.
.
(b)Chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code, is
amended—
(1)in section
8103(a)—
(A)in the matter
preceding paragraph (1), by inserting or other eligible provider
after physician
;
(B)in paragraph (3),
by inserting or other eligible providers
after
physicians
; and
(C)in the matter following paragraph (3), by
inserting or other eligible provider
after
physician
;
(2)in section 8121(6), by inserting or
other eligible provider
after physician
; and
(3)in section 8123—
(A)in subsection (a), by inserting or
other eligible provider
after physician
each place that
such occurs; and
(B)in subsection
(c), by inserting or other eligible provider
after
physician
.
4.The amendment made by
this section shall apply beginning on the first day of the second Federal
fiscal year quarter that begins on or after the date of the enactment of this
Act.