Evaluating the cost of NP-led vs GP-led primary care in British Columbia

Abstract

In 2020, British Columbia (BC) opened four pilot Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Clinics (NP-PCCs) to improve primary care access. The aim of this economic evaluation is to compare the average cost of care provided by Nurse Practitioners (NPs) working in BC’s NP-PCCs to what it would have cost the government to have physicians provide equivalent care. Comparisons were made to both the Fee-For-Service (FFS) model and BC’s new Longitudinal Family Physician (LFP) model. The analyses relied on administrative data, mostly from the Medical Services Plan (MSP) and Chronic Disease Registry (CDR) via BC’s Health Data Platform. Results show the cost of NPs providing care in the NP-PCCs is slightly lower than what it would cost to provide similar care in medical clinics staffed by physicians paid through the LFP model. This suggests that the NP-PCC model is an efficient approach to increase accessibility to primary care services in BC and should be considered for expansion across the province.