The Schizophrenia of Physician Extender Utilization

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 provides incentives for healthcare to be delivered by Affordable Care Organizations (ACOs). The public face of many, if not most, ACOs is likely to be the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMHs), a business structure that evolved from Retail Medical Clinics, which made greater use of physician extenders (PAs). Accordingly, this paper examines the evolution and structure of PCMHs as well as how the PCMH is regulated. As neither legal or market regulatory mechanisms are ideal for policing business structures that employ PAs, this paper concludes that the tort reform most appropriate for PCMHs is the introduction of either no-fault or enterprise liability coverage.