Who will provide primary care?

PPP member, Christopher Garofalo, M.D is interviewed in a story on Medical Economics asking: “Who will provide primary care?” The article addresses the United States’ physician shortage and how NPs and PAs have been taking on the roles of physicians.

Dr. Garofalo points out: “NPs are not necessarily joining physician practices, but are using the physician shortage to attain full practice authority. This allows them to compete directly with physicians, adding one more headache to the primary care physician’s list of ailments.” Additionally: “PPP leaders decry this shift to non-physician led care, and worry that the lower cost of NPs combined with their less rigorous training requirements will lead to poor patient outcomes while threatening the jobs of primary care physicians.”

Another insight shared by Dr. Garofalo is how the cost of patient care when physicians are in charge is less than when nurse practitioners are allowed to take the lead. He underscores that “if congress really wants better care access for patients, with better access to their physicians and lower costs, we should be fighting to have more physicians available to patients.”