PODCAST: Nurse Practitioners VS. Physician Associates

NPs versus PAs

By Eric Bricker MD

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On the Revival of Individual House Call Doctors

Re-Thinking a Popular Practice from the Past

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, MEd, CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

More personal than a corporate home care medical business model, most people view house calls as a popular practice from the past.

Although less than 5% of the nation’s doctors regularly make house calls today, the medical house call industry is swiftly picking up momentum once again. It is a move that is greatly benefiting physicians and patients alike.

Why House Calls?

It’s because we live in a society that has become technology focused. While this emergence has benefited many in terms of medical advancements, there are a growing number of patients who are uncomfortable with next-generation medical practices. These people, particularly the rapidly aging elders of the nation, want to be cared for in a friendly, nurturing, and convenient way. As people age and fall ill, it becomes increasingly difficult to leave the home for office visits. Not to mention, there are many handicapped patients as well who have to arrange for wheelchair vans or ambulances just to visit the doctor. The COVID pandemic and tele-health are illustrative.

Meeting a Niche Market Need

Thanks to the desire of physicians seeking to open their own medical house call practices, these patient needs are slowly being met. Some of these physicians are strictly open for house call visits only and have no physical office. They commonly take appointment requests via phone calls and emails with the overall goal to combine the service of an old-time, small town doctor with the latest technology designed to meet people’s emotional, and financial, needs. Patients are also able to save a considerable amount of time by not having to leave the house to go to the doctor’s office, and not having to fill prescriptions. After all, many medical house call physicians travel along with certain medications that can be dispensed on location. Narcotics, however, will likely still need to be filled with a paper or e-prescription.

While highly convenient for patients who wish to receive medical house call services, the reviving industry is fitting for physicians. In recent years, Medicare has increased its level or reimbursements for physicians who travel to patients. Just in the past few years alone, Medicare has been billed approximately $1.75 million annually for house calls. 

Enter the DNPs and NPs

Even nurse practitioners [NPs] and Doctors of Nursing Practice [DNPs] who make a small number of house calls are typically unaware that they can maximize profit potential with medical house calls. Some NPs have even offset operating expenses by offering house calls to make their office based practice more appealing to their patients.

Link: Front Matter BoMP – 3

Technology Enabled

Also, significant advances in technology have enabled popular medical equipment to be smaller and portable. Physicians are able to perform standard procedures, such as skin biopsies and blood draws while outside the office. They are also able to easily access patient medical records through usage of a laptop, as well as resources such as the Physicians’ Desk Reference [PDS] through usage of a hand-held personal digital assistant or smart cell phone.

Assessment

For example, this firm educates patients and supports physicians who are ready to make a transition from office-based positions to medical house call practices. There are no royalty or membership fees, and this is not a franchise. It helps transition to a reportedly more pleasing, profitable way to practice medicine today.

LINK: https://www.resurgia.com

Conclusion

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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PHYSICIANS: “Aging Out”

By Staff Reporters

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According to HealthcareBrew, thousands of doctors are expected to reach retirement age in the next three years, and their replacements won’t be physicians. Instead, physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) will increasingly provide primary care services, according to a report from consulting firm Mercer.

By 2026, 21% of family medicine, pediatric, and obstetrics and gynecology physicians—or about 32,000 doctors—will be 65 or older, and Mercer anticipates about 23,000 physicians will leave the profession permanently. At the same time, demand for primary care physicians is expected to grow 4%, the report found.

PAs and NPs—also called advanced practice providers (APPs) or physician extenders—are highly trained medical professionals. To become a PA, you have to have both a bachelor’s and a master’s, some clinical work experience, pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam, and then apply to get licensed in your state (you know, easy peasy). It takes seven to nine years to go through that process, compared to 11+ years to become an MD.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

To become an NP, you must have both a bachelor’s and a master’s in nursing, become a registered nurse, and pass a national NP board certification exam. It takes between six to eight years to become an NP.

Compared to physicians, PAs and NPs are “considerably younger professions with less than half the retirement risk,” the Mercer report stated. Roughly 40,000 PAs and NPs join the workforce annually.

“We’re certainly going to see increasing demand for APPs,” David Mitchell, a partner in Mercer’s career consulting business and a specialist in the healthcare industry, told Healthcare Brew.

While most state licensing boards require a physician to oversee APPs, both PAs and NPs have the authority to do many services primary care physicians do, like seeing and diagnosing patients, ordering lab tests, and writing prescriptions, said Mitchell.

READ HERE: https://www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2023/03/16/non-mds-will-provide-primary-care?cid=30859907.17846&mid=349b552221c994e2540a304649746d7c&utm_campaign=hcb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

MORE: https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/data/2022-physician-specialty-data-report-executive-summary

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ADVISORY OPINION: Allows Nurse Practitioner Support in Hospitals

NURSE PRACTITIONERS [NPs]

By Health Capital Consultants, LLC

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Advisory Opinion Allows Nurse Practitioner Support in Hospitals

On December 19, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published Advisory Opinion (AO) No. 22-20, analyzing the utilization of nurse practitioners (NPs) in lieu of attending physicians within medical units. The OIG concluded that the arrangement utilizing NPs in certain medical units, subject to several safeguards, presented a low risk for fraud or abuse.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

As noted by legal experts, this AO deviates from OIG’s typical approach to limiting arrangements involving potential remuneration from a hospital to its referring physicians. (Read more…)

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Myths and Solutions for Healthcare Reform

Enter the Primary Care Docs, NPs, PAs and DNPs

Staff Reportersidea

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. Would more family practitioners, and professional medical care extenders, help or hinder true healthcare reform?  

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com  or Bio: www.stpub.com/pubs/authors/MARCINKO.htm

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

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