We need to think more clearly about whether it is more primary care physicians that we need or, instead, more primary care clinicians: nurse practitioners, physician assistants and the like.

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We have to make sure we have not only the doctors and nurses and nurse practitioners, but the primary care, the gerontologists, the folks who are going to take care of the entire population.

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Through the Independence at Home demonstration, the ACA will pay physicians and nurse practitioners to provide home-based primary care to targeted chronically ill individuals for a three -year period.

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Many primary care clinics already weave together physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and registered nurses.

FORBES: Solving the Primary Care Physician Shortage by Turning PCPs into Anesthesiologists

As in many primary-care offices, the staff had two physicians and two nurse practitioners.

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Meanwhile, nurse practitioners are being financially rewarded for filling voids in the primary care field.

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If dementia is confirmed, the center's nurse practitioners, social workers and care managers work closely with family caregivers and primary-care physicians to customize care plans, reviewing medications to reduce the use of drugs that can be harmful to older brains.

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