AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 5, 2010 -- The Maryland Coalition of Nurse Practitioners (MCNP) and the Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland (NPAM) have been working with CareFirst to expand quality health care coverage to Maryland citizens. The newly announced expansion of the CareFirst Medical Home to include nurse practitioners as leaders, and/or team members is a serious commitment towards moving Maryland's health care programs forward. Credentialing Nurse Practitioners (NPs) as primary care providers for Blue Choice further shows CareFirst's commitment to providing improved access to high quality health care for their subscribers.
There are over 3500 nationally board certified, state licensed NPs in Maryland who will now be better able to provide both primary and specialty care to people throughout Maryland. For nearly half a century NPs have been providing care and millions of Americans have been selecting NPs for their primary, acute and chronic care needs. This decision by Blue Cross Blue shield will aid in direct access to care and enhance the transparency of the health insurance system. We applaud Carefirst's efforts to expand NP services to their subscribers.
There are over 140,000 NPs in the United States today.
To locate an NP in your community, go to npfinder.com. For more information about NPs, visit aanp.org.