Health-Care Reform: Opportunities for APRNs and Urgency for Modernizing Nurse Practice Acts

The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, for the most part, represents solutions to our health-care delivery system and insurance market inequities. The legislation directly addresses the thorny nature of our blended public-private health-care enterprise and builds on the uniquely American employer-sponsored health insurance system.The act addresses many problem-laden characteristics of the delivery system, including the lack of access to coverage, health-care workforce planning, and alignment of payment with outcomes, financing, quality, and safety.The opportunities for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in this legislation are significant. As the Act unfolds over the coming years, key provisions undergird the need for highly qualified APRNs. In this article, these provisions are viewed through the lens of nurse practice acts that do not conform to national standards in the APRN Consensus Report.Then, specific recommendations from stakeholders regarding the urgency to reform, standardize, and modernize the nation's scope-of-practice regulations for APRNs are reviewed.