Only 100 experts across the country have been selected to advise the federal government on what medical items and services should be covered under Medicare. School of Nursing clinical professor Joy Elwell is one of them.<\/p>\n
As of Jan. 1, Elwell is serving a two-year term on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\u2019 Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee<\/a>. The group includes national experts in medicine, public health, and related fields, who are responsible for evaluating the latest medical literature and technology. The committee then makes recommendations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on what should be, or is eligible to be, covered under the national health insurance program.<\/p>\n \u201cI was surprised when I received the invitation, but I\u2019m grateful and excited to be a part of this,\u201d says Elwell<\/a>, who has been a registered nurse for 40 years, a nurse practitioner for 28, and directs the School\u2019s Doctor of Nursing Practice program<\/a>. \u201cI see myself as a patient advocate, as an advocate for nursing. I want to use the gifts and knowledge that nursing brings to the table to improve access to health care for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Elwell has been involved in health policy since 1997, at both the state and federal levels, but feels she really came into her advocacy role in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think nursing is at the bedside in a hospital, but nursing is everywhere. … We need to be more assertive about how we can improve the health of the nation using the important knowledge that nursing brings.\u201d — Joy Elwell<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhen I lived in New York, the governor at the time convened a Medicaid redesign team,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was made up of clinical experts from every healing discipline and it was my first exposure to interdisciplinary advocacy.\u201d<\/p>\n As a member of that team, Elwell helped pave the path for full practice authority for nurse practitioners in New York. Other states in the Northeast later followed suit. Now, she\u2019s taking her experience to Baltimore, where the Medicare advisory committee meets at least twice a year.<\/p>\n \u201cMedicare sets the standard that all of the private payers base their reimbursements on,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are so many procedures and types of medical visits out there, and all of those reimbursement billables are based on Medicare. That\u2019s why I\u2019m excited to be a part of this \u2014 to look at new technologies and best evidence and take the knowledge that I have of evidence-based practice and improve coverage for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n A family nurse practitioner, Elwell also holds a dual appointment with UConn School of Medicine. She is a fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think nursing is at the bedside in a hospital, but nursing is everywhere,\u201d Elwell says. \u201cIt\u2019s in case management, schools, industry, research teams, the community, the military, correctional institutions, and even NASA. We need to be more assertive about how we can improve the health of the nation using the important knowledge that nursing brings.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more about the School of Nursing, visit <\/em>nursing.uconn.edu<\/em><\/a> or follow the School on <\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>, or <\/em>LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joy Elwell is one of 100 experts across the country who advise the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on what should be covered under the national health insurance program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":182754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,1877,2231],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2217],"class_list":["post-182742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-nur","category-health-well-being"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-13 07:51:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182742"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182774,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182742\/revisions\/182774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/182754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182742"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=182742"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=182742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n