Alberta Allows Nurse Practitioners to Open Clinics With New $15M Funding Model

Alberta is introducing a new compensation model that would allow nurse practitioners to make 80 percent of what family doctors are paid as part of a new $15 million program. The initiative aims to fill gaps in system by matching up more residents with a primary health-care provider. “With over 700,000 Albertans without a primary care provider and over 900 nurse practitioners in Alberta, there is a real opportunity here to significantly decrease the lack of access,” Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said during an April 25 news conference. The Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Program model will compensate nurse practitioners nearly as much as family physicians in the province on the condition they start their own practice and work at reaching a roster of 900 patients, the province said in a press release....