Primary Care Nurse Practitioners (PCNPs) are licensed advanced practice providers who deliver frontline primary care services, including preventive care, chronic disease management, and acute care visits. Using data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), this indicator tracks the number of PCNPs actively billing for primary care services within a community. Because CMS data reflect real clinical activity—not just licensure—they provide a reliable measure of actual primary care capacity. Higher numbers of PCNPs per 100,000 residents typically indicate better access to routine care, especially in underserved neighborhoods where NPs often fill gaps left by physician shortages.

Why Does this Matter?

1. Nurse practitioners expand access to primary care

• Studies consistently find that primary care nurse practitioners (NPs) are more likely than physicians to practice in rural and underserved areas, helping reduce geographic gaps in access to care. ¹

2. Care delivered by primary care NPs is comparable in quality to physician care 

• Systematic reviews show that patients cared for by NPs have similar or better outcomes on measures such as blood pressure control, patient satisfaction, and hospital admissions, supporting the use of NPs as core primary care providers. ²

3. More NPs in primary care can lower costs and improve value

• Evidence suggests that NP-led or NP-integrated primary care can reduce emergency department use and potentially avoidable hospitalizations, while maintaining or improving quality—an important consideration for communities managing chronic disease and constrained health budgets.³

1.  Barnes, H., Richards, M. R., McHugh, M. D., & Martsolf, G. (2018). Rural and nonrural primary care physician practices increasingly rely on nurse practitioners. Health Affairs, 37(6), 908–914. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.1158
2.  Newhouse, R. P., Stanik-Hutt, J., White, K. M., Johantgen, M., Bass, E. B., Zangaro, G., Wilson, R. F., Fountain, L., Steinwachs, D. M., Heindel, L., & Weiner, J. P. (2011). Advanced practice nurse outcomes 1990–2008: A systematic review. Nursing Economics, 29(5), 230–250.
3. Martsolf, G. R., Auerbach, D. I., Arifkhanova, A., Mehrotra, A., Whitney, S., & Werber, L. (2018). The impact of full practice authority for nurse practitioners and other advanced practice registered nurses in U.S. health care. Medical Care Research and Review, 75(4), 412–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077558717734614