2024 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives
26 states allowing NPs Full Practice Authority (FPA). By contrast, the percentage of physicians practicing in rural areas declined by 12.8% over the same period ( 5 Key Healthcare Trends Affecting Nurse Practitioners in 2023. HealthLeaders. Feb. 6, 2023 ). In addition, NPs are taking a larger role in addressing demand for mental health services. Close to 100 new psychiatric NP programs have been added to U.S. schools of nursing in the past 10 years, producing more than 13,000 new providers, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Enrollment and Graduation Reports 2012-2022. The number of NPs treating Medicare beneficiaries for psychiatric and mental health conditions grew 162% from 2011 to 2019, compared to a 6% decrease in the number of psychiatrists treating Medicare patients ( 5 Key Healthcare Trends Affecting Nurse Practitioners in 2023. HealthLeaders. Feb. 6, 2023 ). Without the growing contributions of NPs, the shortage of mental health professionals would be even more pronounced. A Key Source of Revenue Like physicians, NPs are direct drivers of revenue to their practices and employers. AMN Healthcare’s 2023 Physician Billing Report tracks annual billing submitted by NPs to commercial payors.
BILLING SUBMITTED BY NPS TO COMMERCIAL PAYORS 25 TH PERCENTILE 50 TH PERCENTILE 75 TH PERCENTILE $453,880 $777,393 $1,311,922
These numbers would be higher if billing to Medicare and other government payors were included. As the number of states granting NPs FPA continues to grow, the role of NPs — and demand for their services — will increase correspondingly. Percent of Primary Care Physician Search Engagements Declines The AAMC and other organizations continue to project a shortage of primary care physicians. The Healthcare Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) indicates that a shortage of 17,000 primary care physicians exists today and now designates
over 7,000 Healthcare Professionals Shortage Areas (HPSAs) for primary care nationwide. However, a growing number of PAs and NPs have helped address the shortage of primary care physicians, and many patients now obtain their primary care from NPs and PAs at urgent care centers and retail clinics rather than at physician offices. As a result, the number of search engagements AMN Healthcare conducts for primary care physicians as a percent of all search engagements has consistently declined in recent years. As indicated in the 2024 Review , only 14% of AMN Healthcare’s search engagement last year were for primary care physicians, down from 17% the prior year and down from 33% ten years ago. By contrast, 23% of the company’s search engagement in the 2024 Review period were for NPs, PAs or CRNAs, up from 19% the previous year and up from just 6% ten years ago. Overall, however, family medicine physicians remained AMN Healthcare’s second most requested search engagement in the 2024 Review for the 18th year in a row, while internal medicine physicians ranked fourth, suggesting that demand for primary care physicians remains robust, though not at the level of previous years.
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