A new report from healthcare staffing company AMN Healthcare shows – nurse practitioners – not … [+]
Demand for nurse practitioners and primary care physicians is escalating along with their compensation as retailers from Amazon and CVS Health to Walmart and Walgreens build primary care clinics across the country.
A new report from healthcare staffing company AMN Healthcare shows – nurse practitioners – not doctors – topped the staffing company’s list of “most requested search engagements for the third consecutive year,” according to an annual report released Monday from AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division, formerly known as Merritt Hawkins.
“Demand for nurse practitioners (NPs) is being driven by a growing number of convenient care providers, including retail clinics, urgent care centers and telemedicine platforms, which employ large numbers of NPs,” the report said.
To be sure, the entrance of large retailers into the business of providing healthcare is causing bidding wars for primary care medical care providers.
Average salary offers made to nurse practitioners were up 9% this year to $158,000, compared to $138,000 last year, “underscoring the strong demand for advanced practice nurses,” AMN Healthcare said in its 2023 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives.
CVS Health, which paid more than $10 billion for the Chicago-based senior primary care clinic developer Oak Street Health, is adding dozens of new clinics via that acquisition that includes hiring more doctors and nurse practitioners. Meanwhile, Amazon this year entered the primary care space with its $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical, which operates more than 220 primary care offices in more than 28 U.S. markets. This comes with Walmart doubling the size of its Walmart health center footprint across the U.S. and Walgreens effort with VillageMD to roll out hundreds of new doctor-staffed clinics across the country that are requiring these companies to hire new primary care physicians.
A compensation report released earlier this year from the Medical Group Management Association showed primary care compensation had its biggest increase in five years with the total compensation rising 4.4% to $299,157 in 2022 from $286,525 in 2021. The 2023 MGMA Provider Compensation and Production report reflects data from nearly 190,000 providers across more than 6,800 hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations.
The AMN Healthcare report, which looks at starting salaries, said primary care physician starting salaries this year were generally flat compared to a year ago but specialists pay was up 10% to 20% for the more specialized doctors.
“Healthcare is evolving as new market entrants seek to change how and where care is delivered,” said Leah Grant, President of AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions. “More types of organizations are recruiting physicians, causing salaries to trend up. “