Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
CVS’s Minute Clinic isn’t the only game in town for quick primary care visits anymore. Wal-Mart is getting into the primary care game with $40 office visits with nurse practitioners. MSN Money reports: Wal-Mart is making its long-awaited move into delivering primary care: The retailer has quietly opened half a dozen primary care clinics across South Carolina and Texas…
This blog has been a proponent of increased use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants to reduce the cost of health care. However, do they really reduce the cost of care? On the one hand, NPs and PAs cost less than physicians. On the other hand, if patients must visit an NP/PA and then a…
If you are an avid reader of this blog, you’ve heard about nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). What you might not know is how they popularity has grown over the past decade. A paper by Strange (2013) cites the following statistics: With more than 85,000 PAs and 150,000 NPs eligible to practice, their…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently approved reimbursing nurse anesthetists for care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Critics say it jeopardizes patient safety, while supporters say it extends health care to pain patients who are often underserved by the medical community. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) (unsurprisingly) applauds the decision. Janice…
Frontline has done extensive reporting on the problems of dental care in America. In particular, they cite the lack of quality that both children and adults receive at various corporate dental firms (e.g., KoolSmiles, Aspen Dental). The problem should not be placed solely on these corporate firms, however. Reimbursement rates for dentists are low to…
A July 2012 IOM report recommends changing state laws to allow “nurse practitioners and physician assistants to practice to the full extent of their educational preparation.” Based on information from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), not all states currently allow permit NPs this flexibility. Currently 16 states and the District of Columbia (see below)…
Nurse practitioners (NPs) are non-physician clinicians that can often either assist or directly provide primary care. Some studies have found that NPs can independently manage 80 percent of patients’ primary care needs. Other studies show that NPs provide high-quality care. A recent article, however, suggests that NPs may not be cost effective. This is a curious…