Rebekah Bernard joins the show to discuss her book Patients at Risk:  The Rise of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant in Health Care. Bernard examines the death of a patient who died after a misdiagnosis by a mid-level practitioner at a multi-billion-dollar health care facility.

More and more, health care operations are relying on providers who receive less than half the clinical training and education than physicians.  Some hospital systems have fired physicians and replaced them with nurse practitioners and physician assistants.  While this is intended to improve access and drive down costs, Rebekah Bernard argues that has not been the case and, in some cases has put patients at risk.

Rebekah Bernard discusses:

1.  What her book is about and why she wrote it

2. The American Medical Associations efforts to keep competitors out

3. Underserved areas, rural, urban

4. What is “full practice authority” and the fees nurse practitioners must pay. Is it fair?

5. What about physicians’ assistants?

6. Should physicians be doing the more complicated care?

7. Is there any role for nurse practitioners in a free market?

8. Transparency of hospital prices… does this sound like a similar argument?

9. In a free market, would we be having this discussion?

10. Physicians for patient protection website:  https://www.physiciansforpatientprotection.org