The Future of Primary Care

[Miami_med]

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In my ACLS class a few weeks ago, an NP said flat out that doctors will be "obsolete" in primary care soon enough.

It was hard to find a reason to disagree.

If you run an HMO, which would you rather hire... an NP for 75k or an FP for 150k? Especially if you are for-profit and couldn't care less about the level of training of your minions as long as they don't get into too much trouble?

The consumers might start to care. People are not as dumb as some think that they are. The HMO can't make profits without clients. Individual consumers refusing to use HMOs is the number one reason that they have lost popularity in recent years in the first place.

 

[primadonna22274]

I would point out that if you were told that you had been scheduled with the PHYSICIAN, then you should have seen the PHYSICIAN. In fact, the scheduler should have said "Miss Smith, Certified Physician Assistant, can see you on xxx, at zzz...." so you could have said, "what about the physician?" and you could have had the opportunity to clarify. I've never been fond of the bait & switch tactic. I think it's very important that you know who you'll be seeing...at least when appointments are made in advance. Totally different situation in the ED where I work now...you see the person who picks up your chart next.
BUT I appreciate your open mindedness on this matter, and if you are reasonably healthy, I think you're right (as someone who's done a heckuva lot of screening physicals and is very comfortable in primary care).
Lisa PA-C

It's not a matter of who I'd rather see, it's a matter of who I'm going to see. After all, I intentionally chose a Family Physician as my PCP with my new insurance, and instead received a PA. I'm not even sure the physician was even in the clinic that day. I'm sure the physician does this to bring in more revenue for his practice.

Until physician's start agreeing that they cannot be replaced my midlevels, this argument is moot to begin with. We are in large part causing our own undoing.