Optimizing Advanced Practice Provider Performance

Optimizing APP Performance: Unlocking Revenue Potential & Enhancing Patient Care

The role of advanced practice providers (APPs), including nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs), has become increasingly pivotal in the healthcare landscape. With their employment projected to grow substantially in the coming years, optimizing APP performance is not just a matter of operational efficiency, but a strategic opportunity for enhancing patient care and boosting organizational revenue.

The Rising Demand for APPs

Recent data highlights a robust demand for APPs:

Nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners are expected to see a 38% increase in employment from 2022 to 2032.
Physician Assistants will experience a 27% growth over the same period.

This rapid expansion underscores the importance of effectively integrating APPs into the healthcare system. However, many organizations struggle to fully harness the potential of these highly skilled professionals.

Addressing the Lack of Standardization

A significant challenge in optimizing APP performance is the current lack of standardization in their utilization across different healthcare settings. Whether in inpatient, ambulatory, or procedural environments, APPs often face varied expectations and roles, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

Key Strategies to Enhance APP Performance & Boost Productivity

1. Scope of Optimization

Ensure APPs are operating at the full extent of their training and licensure. This may require redefining their roles to use their advanced skills effectively and fostering close collaboration with other healthcare team members.

2. Workflow Efficiency

Streamline workflows and reduce administrative burdens on APPs through optimized electronic health records (EHRs), standardized protocols, and improved patient scheduling systems. Efficient workflows minimize time spent on administrative tasks, allowing APPs to focus more on direct patient care.

3. Performance Metrics & Feedback

Establish clear performance metrics and provide regular feedback. Metrics may include patient outcomes, satisfaction scores, clinical quality measures, and productivity reports. Clear metrics and consistent feedback enable APPs to track their performance and identify areas for improvement. This ongoing evaluation fosters continuous professional development and allows APPs to make informed adjustments to their practice, enhancing both their productivity and patient care outcomes.

4. Compensation Models That Do Not Prevent Optimization

Ensure compensation models for all clinicians (i.e., physicians and APPs) appropriately align incentives. As care team models grow more popular, be sure to eliminate any disincentives for physicians to include the APPs on the care team.

By implementing these strategies, healthcare organizations can significantly enhance APP performance, leading to increased productivity and improved patient care. These steps ensure APPs are fully utilized, efficient, and integrated into a collaborative care environment, which can unlock revenue potential.

Unlocking Revenue Potential

One of the most compelling reasons to optimize APP performance is the potential for increased revenue. Many organizations find that APPs have relatively low work relative value unit (wRVU) productivity. While reasons for their lower wRVUs vary, it is typically related to the clinical area’s operational model and the way the APPs are utilized.

By ensuring APPs practice at the top of their license—rather than performing tasks suited for RNs or MAs—organizations can significantly boost their wRVU productivity. This not only enhances revenue but also reflects better utilization of APPs’ advanced skills and training.

The number of APPs in the workforce is growing, with significant revenue implications when average APP wRVUs increase from the 25th percentile to the 50th and 75th percentiles based on market data. This productivity increase will likely need to be accompanied by a change in compensation models and potentially in care delivery models.

Conclusion

As the demand for APPs continues to rise, healthcare organizations must focus on optimizing their performance to realize the full benefits of their capabilities. By addressing scope of practice, streamlining workflows, setting clear performance metrics, fostering collaboration, integrating technology, and implementing aligned compensation plans, organizations can enhance patient care and unlock significant revenue opportunities.

Effective APP workforce optimization is not just a strategic necessity, but a pathway to achieving excellence in healthcare delivery and operational efficiency.

Kevin Hendrickson

Manager

Kevin Hendrickson, CPA, based in Cumming, Georgia, is a Manager for the Compensation Arrangements division at VMG Health. With over 30 years of expertise, Kevin specializes in physician compensation valuation, commercial reasonableness opinions, strategic physician compensation plan design, advanced practice provider care optimization, and physician practice management. His work includes fair market value and commercial reasonableness opinions for physician employment arrangements, professional service agreements, medical director compensation agreements, and physician practice assessments and acquisitions.

Before joining VMG Health, Kevin was a Manager at Veralon. Additionally, he held management roles at three national consulting firms, where he oversaw numerous valuation and compensation projects, including physician employment agreements and practice acquisitions. He also served as Director of Finance for Physician Services at a major southeastern health center, managing physician recruitment, employment agreements, market benchmarking, and compliance reviews. Additionally, as a regional physician practice manager for Per Se Technologies, he managed private radiology and anesthesia practices, designed compensation distribution plans, and supported practice acquisitions.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is a former Certified Public Accountant. His early career experience includes tax accounting at major accounting firms and investment analysis.

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Karin Kaplan

Managing Director

Karin Chernoff Kaplan, based in Philadelphia, is a Managing Director for the Professional Service Agreements division at VMG Health. As a leading expert in healthcare valuation with over 30 years of extensive experience in healthcare strategy, finance, and operations, Karin works closely with health systems, hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers. At VMG Health, her expertise includes fair market value determinations, physician compensation design, compliance-focused policies, and strategic planning.

Before joining VMG Health, Karin was a Managing Director at Veralon. She was also the Director of Regional Operations for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, where she managed a 250-physician primary care network. She also served as Director of Special Projects, supporting the development of an integrated delivery system’s physician network. Her earlier roles include serving as administrator for the Division of Hematology/Oncology at New England Medical Center and gaining healthcare consulting experience at Laventhol & Horwath.

Karin holds an MBA in Health Administration from Temple University and a BS in Health Planning and Administration from Pennsylvania State University. A Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) and member of the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts, she is a sought-after speaker and educator on valuation and physician compensation design. Karin has presented for organizations such as AHLA, NACVA, HFMA, and MGMA, and is recognized as a national thought leader on compensation design in value-based payment models.

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