Law & Economics student Benjamin J. McMichael has been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. His dissertation is titled “Occupational Licensing and Legal Liability: The Effect of Regulation and Litigation on Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and the Healthcare System.” McMichael’s committee chair is Professor R. Lawrence Van Horn. Professors James F. Blumstein, Peter I. Buerhaus, W. Kip Viscusi comprise the rest of McMichael’s dissertation committee.
Summary of the dissertation topic
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs) operate in similar clinical settings as physicians, and as their numbers have grown, they have taken on more responsibility in the healthcare system. Occupational licensing laws enacted by individual states limit what types of medical care these providers may offer and often require that a physician supervise their practices. Patients injured by these providers may sue them, but tort reforms limit the recovery of individual plaintiffs differently in different states. Understanding how different licensing and liability laws affect NPs and PAs will become increasingly important for policymakers as these healthcare professionals assume more responsibility for healthcare in the United States.