As millions of new patients enter the healthcare system in the wake of the Affordable Care Act, the greater use of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) represents an important option for increasing the availability and decreasing the cost of healthcare. However, state occupational licensing laws restrict the capacity of NPs and PAs to provide healthcare in many states, and the threat of malpractice liability may adversely impact the practices of these professionals. In this dissertation, I first explore the political determinants of licensing laws and find that political contributions by physician and hospital interest groups play a salient role in the adoption of less restrictive licensing laws. I next consider the effect of licensing laws and tort reforms on the location decisions of NPs and PAs and find that both sets of laws affect where NPs and PAs decide to supply healthcare. Finally, I find that while broader licensing laws have an ambiguous effect on healthcare quality, they generally increase the use of preventative cancer screenings. Some tort reforms, on the other hand, reduce these screenings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03192015-235411 |
| Date | 02 April 2015 |
| Creators | McMichael, Benjamin Jacob |
| Contributors | R. Lawrence Van Horn, W. Kip Viscusi, James Blumstein, Peter Buerhaus |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03192015-235411/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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