The Growth of Nonphysician Clinicians

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…

Are nurse practitioners cost effective?

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…

Insurers to cover retail clinic visits

The Boston Globe reports that some of Massachusetts largest insurers are beginning to cover medical visits made at retail clinics at CVS and Walgreens drug stores.  Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota is waiving copays for visits to retail clinics.  The American Association of Family Physicians (AAFP) is not happy about this. Carpe Diem says the…