RX for Practice Overload?

As a long-time workforce economics researcher, Dr. Hooker applies economic principles to the decision. Work by Dr. Hooker and others has shown that using PAs and NPs does not compromise the four principle elements of cost effectiveness in healthcare delivery—outcomes, patient satisfaction, patient safety, and effectiveness of treatment. He reasons that the same economic principles used to choose efficacious treatments can also be applied to the use of PA and NP providers. For example, if two medications for RA produce the same benefit, but one is more expensive, why not use the less expensive one? Commensurately, “If [by using PAs and NPs] you have the same results in those four elements of care, but the labor cost is more economical, why not use that labor?” The role of the rheumatologist, he notes, is to set the standards of care, but there is an opportunity to improve the delivery of care by incorporating a division of labor and economy of scale that enhances care and produces an improved outcome.