dont rural areas grant the same privileges to PAs as they do to FPs?

If not, I imagine they can do 99% of what an FP does. They keep getting expanded practice rights every year. I predict in 10 years PAs will be total replacements for rural FPs.

rural areas from my understanding don't grant PAs the same privileges afforded to FP MDs...and I know based on my experience there's no way they do 99%... Besides, why just rural FP? why not rural primary care internal medicine or pediatrics?

PAs in most states have to work under/with a physician in order to get paid...and if there are attempts to increase PA scope of practice, most of organized medicine won't stand for it. It comes up everyone now and again, i.e. certified nurse anesthetists not wanting to have an attending anesthesiologist around...optometrists trying to get non-ophtho prescription rights.... psychologists trying to get prescribing rights. though the job has its routine, the training of an md, pa and np are different, and are meant to complement, not replace one another.

the trend among recent pa grads is to do more specialty medicine in big cities because the money is in er/ortho/surgery as a pa, not primary care. while there are pa only rural practices, they still have to hire an md/do to do chart review. they tend to also be mostly outpatient based with less hospital work and less ob, although there are exceptions. most pa's do not want to have to deal with running a practice in addition to clinical practice. that is 1 reason they became pa's in the 1st place. the model is collaborative practice, not solo practice so that will be the future of rural fp. a practice might have 3 docs and 4 pa's instead of 5 docs and see more folks for more money with more time off for everyone. your figure of 99% is fairly flattering but an overestimate. the accepted figure for a new pa grad is 80% of outpatient FP and 90% of outpatient peds. a solo rural fp provider also has to cover the local er, medical and icu admits which is outside the range of most new grad pa's although there are some( a very small #) who do this. relax, there are enough pts for everyone. remember the baby boomers? they are starting to get old....

PACtoDOC is right about this one...MacGuyver sure tries hard to discourage future rural FP people. He seems to have gained a bunch of supporters in the PA forums (for obvious reasons :p )

I have noticed that MacGyver keeps posting the same type of thread all over the place... "PAs take over cathing" etc... Dunno what his obsession with PAs is, or why he keeps trying to rabble-rouse.

Originally posted by Celiac Plexus
I have noticed that MacGyver keeps posting the same type of thread all over the place... "PAs take over cathing" etc... Dunno what his obsession with PAs is, or why he keeps trying to rabble-rouse.

Me neither...and he should really get his facts straight before he spouts anymore BS

"The PA-C is trained to function in a pseudoindependent role in the health care community to allow for the extension of physician services to rural and under-served areas in each state. This concept was brought about by a perceived physician shortage that was to occur in the late 1970s and 1980s. The plan for better health care access was a good one but it has not completely come to fruition. Many PA-Cs were and still are not desirous of practicing in rural or under-served areas. This has caused them to seek employment in areas of higher density population bases."

From: http://www.asopa.org/index2.asp?Section=OPA