Nurse anesthetists across the country are vehemently defending their ability to administer anesthesia to Medicare patients without physician supervision, saying there's never been a study showing the practice to be unsafe, as alleged by two large physician groups who filed a lawsuit last week.

On the contrary, several representatives of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) say studies have shown that certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) perform the service with equal safety, or even more safely, than anesthesiologists.

"This is not about patient safety. It's about access to care," says Dan Simonson, a member of the AANA board and a nurse anesthetist and researcher in Spokane, WA.

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