(KHN)Pregnant and scared, Natasha Valle went to a Tennova Healthcare hospital in Clarksville, Tennessee, in January 2021 because she was bleeding. She didn't know much about miscarriage, but this seemed like one.
In the emergency room, she was examined then sent home, she said. She went back when her cramping became excruciating. Then home again. It ultimately took three trips to the ER on three consecutive days, generating three separate bills, before she saw a doctor who looked at her bloodwork and confirmed her fears.
"At the time I wasn't thinking, 'Oh, I need to see a doctor,'" Valle recalled. "But when you think about it, it's like, 'Well — dang — why didn't I see a doctor?'" It's unclear whether the repeat visits were due to delays in seeing a physician, but the experience worried her. And she's still paying the bills.
The hospital declined to discuss Valle's care, citing patient privacy. But 17 months before her three-day ordeal, Tennova had outsourced its emergency rooms to American Physician Partners, a medical staffing company owned by private equity investors. APP employs fewer doctors in its ERs as one of its cost-saving initiatives to increase earnings, according to a confidential company document obtained by KHN and NPR.
This staffing strategy has permeated hospitals, and particularly emergency rooms, that seek to reduce their top expense: physician labor. While diagnosing and treating patients was once their domain, doctors are increasingly being replaced by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, collectively known as "midlevel practitioners," who can perform many of the same duties and generate much of the same revenue for less than half of the pay.
"APP has numerous cost saving initiatives underway as part of the Company's continual focus on cost optimization," the document says, including a "shift of staffing" between doctors and midlevel practitioners.
In a statement to KHN, American Physician Partners said this strategy is a way to ensure all ERs remain fully staffed, calling it a "blended model" that allows doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants "to provide care to their fullest potential."
Critics of this strategy say the quest to save money results in treatment meted out by someone with far less training than a physician, leaving patients vulnerable to misdiagnoses, higher medical bills, and inadequate care. And these fears are bolstered by evidence that suggests dropping doctors from ERs may not be good for patients.
A working paper, published in October by the National Bureau of Economic Research, analyzed roughly 1.1 million visits to 44 ERs throughout the Veterans Health Administration, where nurse practitioners can treat patients without oversight from doctors.
At a two-day company training put on by American Physician Partners in 2020, chief medical officer Dr. Tony Briningstool teaches doctors and nurse practitioners how to safely use sedation in the emergency department. As a money-saving strategy, emergency rooms are employing fewer doctors and relying instead on midlevel practitioners.
Researchers found that treatment by a nurse practitioner resulted on average in a 7% increase in co