Shedding Light on Nurse Practitioner Prescribing

• State-based transparency laws specifically include nurse practitioners in 6 states/jurisdictions: Vermont, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Minnesota, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia.
• Federal transparency law (Sunshine provision of the PPACA) does not include NPs, but some information continues to be documented.
• The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now releasing Medicare Part D data that specifically identify prescriber name and place of employment.
• Publically searchable data tools on NP prescribing can be found online at the public journalism website Propublica.com.

Transparency initiatives in society are growing. In the realm of prescribing, recent federal, state, and private initiatives are shedding light on health care provider practice and payments. These transparency initiatives commonly include information on nurse practitioners. Recently implemented federal and state Sunshine laws are discussed. Also, the newly released Medicare Part D data, which include nurse practitioner identified information, are described in the context of the federal data release as well as the news outlets that are utilizing this watershed of information to inform the public on health care provider practice.