Perception of Executive Order on Medicare Pay for Advanced Practice Providers: A Study of Comments From Medical Professionals.

Overview

On October 3, 2019, President Donald Trump issued the Executive Order on Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation's Seniors, in which he proposed eliminating supervision requirements for advanced practice providers (APPs) and equalizing Medicare reimbursements among APPs and physicians. The objective of this study was to understand public opinion of this proposal by analyzing online comments. We reviewed 352 comments on a Medscape article as well as the corresponding Reddit discussion, and we characterized the comments by demographic information provided and theme. There were 155 commenters. Our study highlights physician concerns about the executive order, specifically the importance of appropriate supervision and improved dermatologic training of APPs so that patients are provided with the best possible medical care.