In one of our recent articles, Nurse Practitioners – In Greater Demand than Many Physicians, we discussed the reasons why so many patients prefer to see NPs rather than physicians. Some of the reasons included nurse practitioners’ holistic approach to healthcare as well as their willingness to give longer consultations than most doctors. But how do the clinical settings where NPs practice benefit from hiring NPs? There are many ways that groups benefit greatly from hiring NPs, but this article will only focus on the cost effectiveness of hiring an NP versus a physician.
According to an extensive case analysis done by the Office of Technology Assessment in 1981, NPs provided equivalent or improved medical care at a lower total cost than physicians. The cost of patient visits were decreased by as much as one third when NPs treated patients in an independent manner. The results of this study have been confirmed in later studies associated with the cost-effectiveness of NP practice.
The hourly compensation of an NP is one-third to one-half that of a physician. In 2010, the median total compensation for primary care physicians was $214,079, while the average full-time NP’s total salary was $97,345. Also, NP cost effectiveness is not contingent upon the practice setting. Studies have shown that NPs deliver health care at 23% below the average cost associated with other primary care providers, which resulted in a 21% reduction in hospital inpatient rates and 24% lower lab utilization rates compared to physicians.
Hiring NPs could help your group achieve significant savings, less costly interventions as well as fewer emergency visits and hospitalizations. Fifty years of evidence has proven that NPs not only provide high-quality care, but they are also cost-effective providers. Make your patients happy and your budget happy – hire more NPs.
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* Facts from article taken from – https://www.aanp.org/aanpqa2/images/documents/publications/costeffectiveness.pdf