The impact of Medicare coverage on the PA profession.

Federal legislation that took effect on January 1 provides for Medicare part B reimbursement for physician assistant services in several clinical settings. Besides recognizing PAs' contribution to health care delivery, the law may greatly increase demand for PAs (especially in geriatric medicine), allow them to branch out to more nontraditional forms of practice, and prompt a need for a larger pool of graduates from PA education programs. This legislative victory does not diminish--but heightens--the profession's responsibility to show that PA services are cost-effective.