The issue focused on new regulations that the Department of Labor imposed on nursing homes under the Affordable Care Act. Among the regulations, nurse practitioners could no longer write medical prescriptions for general health benefits for patients for whom there was no qualifying medical need, and for whose medical care was already covered by Medicare or Medicaid.


Despite the changes in the regulations, the hospitals said they would not change their practice patterns in terms of how many patients they would see and how much they would charge. The federal government says most private