Trends Over Time in Medicare for Advanced Practice Clinicians in Dermatology, 2013-2020

The number of advanced practice clinicians (APCs, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants) in the US is increasing. The effect this has on dermatology is unclear.

To develop a method to identify APCs practicing dermatology in claims data and to evaluate the contribution of dermatology APCs to the dermatology workforce and how this has changed over time.

This retrospective cohort study used the Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data Public Use files (2013 to 2020). As APCs are not listed by specialty, a method to identify APCs practicing dermatology was developed and validated using common dermatology procedural codes. The data were analyzed from November 2022 to April 2023.

The proportion of clinicians and office visits by dermatology APCs and physician dermatologists were evaluated using Mann-Kendall tests. Joinpoint analysis was also used to compare the average annual percentage change of dermatology procedures and clinicians in rural-urban areas between dermatology APCs and physician dermatologists.

The method to identify APCs practicing dermatology had 96% positive predictive value, 100% negative predictive value, 100% sensitivity, and 100% specificity. Between 2013 and 2020, 8444 dermatology APCs and 14 402 physician dermatologists were identified. They provided 109 366 704 office visits in Medicare. The percentage of dermatology clinicians who were APCs increased over time, from 27.7% in 2013 to 37.0% in 2020 (P = .002). The proportion of dermatologic office visits provided by APCs also increased over time, from 15.5% in 2013 to 27.4% in 2020 (P = .002). For all procedure categories, the average annual percentage change was positive for dermatology APCs (range, 10.05%-12.65%) and was higher than that of physician dermatologists. For all rural-urban designations, the average annual percentage change was positive for dermatology APCs (range, 2.03%-8.69%) and was higher than metropolitan, micropolitan, and small-town areas from that of physician dermatologists.

In this retrospective cohort study, there was a temporal increase in the amount of dermatologic care provided by APCs in Medicare. These findings demonstrate changes in the dermatology workforce and may have implications for dermatology as a specialty.