Comment on DOD-2009-HA-0098-DRAFT-0001

Allowing referrals directly from Nurse Practitioners or Physician’s Assistants keeps patients, or at least their records, from being seen by a physician. By doing so could result in the misdiagnoses of an injury or illness resulting in the wrong treatment action being taken. I believe using non-physicians to assist in seeing patients is a good tool to assist in the treatment of more patients but I think they should be supervised by a qualified doctor. With misdiagnosis already as high as 40% I don’t think taking the doctor out of the picture is the best answer. Many people argue that Nurse Practitioners in particular have a better “bed-side manner” than doctors and because of that they prefer to see a Nurse Practitioner over a doctor. Being comfortable with your medical professional is definitely important but this doesn’t mean that the Nurse Practitioner can’t still be supervised by a doctor. I know that the intent of this proposed rule does not mean that Nurse Practitioners won’t be working under the supervision of a doctor but it opens the door for this to happen, at least in the areas provided for in the proposed rule (physical, occupational and speech therapy). In any case, I would prefer to know that if I am diagnosed by a non-physician that he or she is under the direct supervision of a physician and that that doctor has at least reviewed my symptoms, my medical history and the diagnoses. Thank you for your time.