Midlevel Providers Fill Primary Care Doctors' Shoes : NPR

Increasingly, the doctor is not in when it comes to delivering primary care. But the nurse practitioner or physician assistant is often taking the doctor's place.
"We are ideally suited for it. And it's so cost-effective compared to any other form of medical provider," says Jim Love, a physician assistant from rural Pittsfield, Maine. "We need to be educating a lot more of us."
Michael McDonald, the primary care physician who supervises Love from 25 miles up the road in Dexter, Maine, agrees.
"You're going to see more nurse practitioners and physician assistants taking care of our primary care needs. That's going to be the reality of it," says McDonald, whose community health center, Sebasticook Family Doctors, counts among its providers MDs, doctors of osteopathy, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.