Payment for nursing services: issues in policy implementation

The respondents presented a picture of payment in Wisconsin that varied among specialty groups and among practitioners within each specialty group. Some nurses in each category had been paid directly, but this tended to be the exception rather than the rule. Even when nurses were paid by third-party payers, client needs were reported as exceeding coverage, payments were difficult to collect, and in most specialty areas, payments received were insufficient for nurses to live on unless other sources of income were available. Records of client utilization, time spent, and types of service were kept by at least some members of each specialty group should such data be needed in further research.