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Thirty-two U.S. states permit independent prescribing by nurse practitioners (NPs), despite some professional organizations' expressed concerns about possible care quality disparities between NPs and physicians. Investigators used 7 years of Medicare data, from states that permit independent prescribing by NPs, to assess prescribing patterns of the American Geriatric Society's Beers list (J Am Geriatr Soc 2023; 71:2052) of “potentially inappropriate medications” to older adults (age, ≥65).
About 50,000 primary care physicians and 24,000 NPs were included. Mean rates of prescribing potentially inappropriate medications were similar for NPs and physicians (1.7 episodes per 100 prescriptions in each group), but prescribing variation was wider a…