The impact of scope-of-practice restrictions on access to medical care

Jiapei Guo, Angela E. Kilby and Mindy Marks

Journal of Health Economics, 2024, vol. 94, issue C

Abstract: We study the impact of scope-of-practice laws in a highly regulated and important policy setting, the provision of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. We consider two natural experiments generated by policy changes at the state and federal level that allow nurse practitioners more practice autonomy. Both experiments show that liberalizations of prescribing authority lead to large improvements in access to care. Further, we use rich address-level data to answer key policy questions. Expanding nurse practitioner prescribing authority reduces urban–rural disparities in health care access. Additionally, expanded autonomy increases access to care provided by physicians, driven by complementarities between providers.

Keywords: Scope-of-practice; Opioid use disorder; Health care access; Nurse practitioners; Occupational licensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 J44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s0167629623001212

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102844

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