Does Contracting with Managed Care Organizations Remain A Barrier for Nurse Practitioners?

CONTRACTS; HEALTH services accessibility; INSURANCE; HEALTH insurance; INTERVIEWING; MANAGED care programs; MAPS; NURSE practitioners; POPULATION geography; PRIMARY health care; SURVEYS; DATA analysis software; PATIENT Protection & Affordable Care Act; MEDICAL coding; DESCRIPTIVE statistics

The article discusses issues in the U.S. healthcare sector as of March 2017, particularly on whether contracting with managed care organizations (MCO) still serve as barrier for nurse practitioners (NP). Also cited are the developments in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the expected shortage of primary care physicians by 2020 due to the increasing number of insured Americans, and the differences of the terms "credentialing" and "contracting."