New legislation co-sponsored by 26th District Sen. Emily Randall, Washington State Senate Bill 5704, would mandate state-regulated commercial insurance carriers reimburse nurse practitioners and physicians equally, known as pay parity. In Washington State, most insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, already reimburse equally. However, private health plans, like Premera and Regence, have reduced nurse practitioner reimbursement to 85% of the physician rate under certain circumstances, such as when family nurse practitioners work in emergency rooms or specialty clinics, in a scope for which they are not trained. This bill would remove that flexibility for private health plans.
