Journal of Public Economics · 2023 · Benjamin J. McMichael
Abstract
The increased use of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants/associates (PAs) to provide healthcare represents an important supply-side policy option to expand access to care. However, restrictive scope-of-practice laws limit their ability to deliver care. I examine the effect of relaxing these scope-of-practice laws on healthcare amenable deaths, which are sensitive to access to care. Analyzing deaths in the United States between 2005 and 2019, I find that relaxing NP scope-of-practice laws reduces healthcare amenable deaths by 12 per 100,000 individuals and that relaxing PA scope-of-practice laws reduces these deaths by 10 per 100,000, with larger reductions in rural areas.