The Urgent Care Association (UCA) and College of Urgent Care Medicine (CUCM) strongly support modernizing Physician Assistant (PA) practice. UCA and CUCM together are the largest trade and professional associations in Urgent Care with more than 4000 member centers representing urgent care clinical and business professionals from the United States and abroad.

Urgent care centers are an integral part of health care delivery in communities across the United States. Urgent care centers provide walk-in, extended-hour access for acute illness and injury care that is either beyond the scope or availability of the typical primary care practice or clinic. PAs are a critical component of the urgent care workforce, and centers rely on PAs to deliver quality care to patients. More than 80 percent of urgent care centers employ a combination of physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners to provide care.

PAs are advanced medical providers who offer a full spectrum of high-quality patient care. Flexible and collaborative, PAs seamlessly work in teams with physicians and advance practice nurses enhancing healthcare and the patient experience and outcomes.

Unfortunately, outdated barriers present in state PA practice acts often restrict how our members can employ and utilize PAs. States must eliminate the mandated requirement for a PA to have a specific relationship with another other healthcare provider to practice. This administrative hurdle causes unnecessary challenges and paperwork for our member centers.

Instead, we believe healthcare teams, led by physicians, should be given the flexibility to decide how to most appropriately work together. When this outdated statutory requirement is removed, it will allow urgent care centers to further expand access to care and reduce healthcare costs.

The current pandemic underscores the need for urgent care; PAs have been an integral part to our healthcare delivery system. It is time to update state laws to remove barriers to PA practice.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jasmeet Bhogal, President, College of Urgent Care Medicine Dr. Joseph Chow, President, Urgent Care Association Lou Ellen Horwitz, Chief Executive Officer, Urgent Care Association 08.31.21.