If advanced practice provider employment growth continues at current rates, non-physician clinicians and physicians will soon make up equal parts of the nation’s provider workforce, according to Kaufman Hall’s latest Physician Flash Report.
APPs now account for 41% of providers in U.S. physician practices, according to the quarterly report published May 7. The physician shortage, coupled with growing demands for primary and surgical care in outpatient settings, are key drivers in APP workforce growth, experts say.
“Advanced practice providers like physician assistants and nurse practitioners play a vital and increasingly visible role in healthcare,” Matthew Bates, managing director and physician enterprise service line leader with Kaufman Hall, said in a statement. “When deployed correctly, advanced practice providers let physicians practice at the top of their license. They give doctors more time to focus on diagnosis and treatment, which can make physician practices more efficient and address other challenges, including physician burnout.”
Previous reports from the healthcare consulting firm have found organizations that leverage a higher percent of APPs in their respective workforces increasingly outperform peers on productivity and compensation metrics. The latest report reinforces this dynamic, noting that the median subsidy per physician rose 6% between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025 to $312,528. Kaufman Hall cautions that the downstream margin physicians generate may no longer be enough to cover this investment. For example, the net patient revenue and total expense per provider FTE each grew just 5% during that same period, signaling flat margins.
APPs are also entering the workforce at significantly faster rates than physicians. In 2020, APPs made up more than 60% of new provider entrants. The latest projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show nurse practitioner jobs are expected to grow 46% by 2031, making it the third-fastest growing occupation in the country. Physician assistant jobs are projected to grow 28% over the same period.
