Justin Gill Receives the 2020 AANP Washington State Advocate Award

Justin Gill is a part-time lecturer in the School of Nursing and Health Studies, who teaches Health Policy and Organization of Healthcare. Gill has received the 2020 AANP Washington State Advocate Award after being nominated for his work on a legislative advocacy strategy for ARNP (advanced registered nurse practitioner) reimbursement parity with ARNPs United of Washington State. Mr. Gill completed this project as part of his doctoral work at Yale. He partnered with ARNPs United of Washington State to develop a legislative advocacy strategy to change the law in Washington State regarding insurance payments to nurse practitioners. Currently in Washington State, if an nurse practitioner owns his or her own practice, and bills an insurance company directly, they are often paid at a reduced rate for providing the same service as a physician, even when the outcomes are the same (approximately 85% of the physician rate). Oregon has a law that mandates reimbursement parity for NPs in primary and behavioral healthcare. Because of his background/interest in policy/politics, he chose to pursue a policy project here in Washington State to change the law. Gill worked with a mentor, Louise Kaplan, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, to survey ARNP business owners about the impact this problem has with the sustainability of their practices. They used this data in combination with a legislative strategy to draft language (which ultimately was introduced in the 2019 and 2020 WA legislature). Learn more about the advocacy strategy.