gasman,

your field is in no better shape.

Just as insurance companies can require NPs as gatekeepers, they could ALSO require CRNAs as gatekeeper anesthesiologists to be used for all the bread/butter surgeries and pay for MDAs only for very technically complex operations like transplants.

So far ,the only field that has successfully fought off the midlevels including NPs is the surgeons. There is no surgery that occurs in this country in which an NP can operate solo.

Aren't Drs. concerned about this? How will you be able to do your job if NPs start filling all the positions? gasman is right, it won't be long until ins. start demanding we see an NP instead of an MD. You Docs better start fighting for your positions, or wake up one day and find you no longer have one.

Why would insurance companies do this?

Think about it... if NP's are getting paid the same amount as an MD, an insurance company won't care either way.

They would have to lower an NP's rate vs. that of an MD to make it worth their while. And perhaps if their rate's drop, less will want to do it.

Question... Do NP's need malpractice insurance? Especially if they're flying solo?

I agree. Are they going to be less liable because they are less trained ? Wait the first big time lawsuits and see the malpractice insurers reaction.

Nurse Practitioners are required to carry their own malpractice insurance and the profession is very carefully regulated by state as well as by individual nursing specialty and the national council of state boards of nursing. If it weren't for NPs, hundreds to thousands of patients would have far more limited access to care. The commentary here shows quite a level of ignorance as to the role of an APN, the educational requirements, and collaborative medicine as a whole. The NP does not serve to replace the MD. In fact, if you asked most NPs, they would never have wanted to go to medical school in the first place. Their goals are to become a skilled advanced practice nurse, not a mini-MD. I personally became a nurse because this is my passion, and I strongly believe in the nursing theory. As an APN, I can continue to work as a nurse but with the addition of diagnostic and treatment skills in collaboration with a physician. However, I can also choose to work independently as a consultant, though in my specialty, this does not really occur. There is generally a great deal of support for APNs at the academic medical center where I'm employed, and it really is a shame that the focus here is on the negative rather than the benefit of having the APN role. Afterall, it was a physician who originally sought the role of APNs in the first place in order to fill a vital need in serving patients.

The operative word is "usually" and trust me Ms. ANP I have seen lawsuits involving both PA's and NP's. In both cases the sharks in the end went after the covering MD's not the NP"s.

Well, that last post was supposed to be down on the thread about "Follow-up on sprained ankles".I'm not sure what happened.

This is Anon 9:45 pm.

Recall I said Autonomous NPs.

Anon 9:23 is right. Any reasonable person who just finished their gen med residency is hit with a harsh dose of reality. Primary care is now like being a maitre d'hotel. No one values your opinion, be it patient or consultant. For the (many) intelligent people who went into Gen Med this is devastating. Fortunately, the medical students have sensed this and are choosing appropriately regardless of the propaganda the med schools have been feeding us for the last 15 years.

NPs don't work under the physician's license! They work under their own license, unlike PAs. NPs are not out to take over physicians jobs. NPs and physicians practice in different ways and there is room for all of us!!