Physicians and institutions are expected to employ more PA's to provide primary care and assist with medical and surgical procedures, thus freeing physicians to perform more complicated and revenue generating tasks. The public and third party payers also seem to approve of PA's use. For example, Medicare now allows physicians to bill the government for services provided by PA's in hospitals and nursing homes. Besides the traditional office-based setting, PA's should find a growing number of jobs in institutional settings such as hospitals, academic medical centers, public clinics, and prisons. The growth of HMO's and group medical practices should also lead to more jobs since they use PA's to provide a wide variety of services because their salaries are lower than those of physicians.
Salaries vary by specialty, practice setting, geographical location, and years of experience.
Other health workers who provide direct patient care that requires a similar level of skill and training include nurse practitioners, physical therapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, and speech and hearing clinicians. NE., Atlanta, GA 30341. These files are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced.