Cost-effectiveness of non-physician health care professionals.

Non-physician health care professionals provide high-quality primary care and increase consumer access to primary care. This article compares the physician/non-physician health care system with the all-physician system in three areas: the degree of patient delegation to non-physician health care professionals; the level of productivity; and the costs of training and employment. Studies of physician/non-physician health care professional substitution ratios show four non-physician health care professionals can replace two to three physicians. The addition of a non-physician health care professional to a physician office results in an average increase of approximately 40 to 50 percent in total office visits. Total cost savings when a non-physician health care professional replaces a physician is more than $34,000 a year. An analysis of several studies demonstrates that the substitution of non-physician health care professionals results in a significant cost savings.