Mid-level healthcare providers: Making a fresh case for modern Indian healthcare

To compensate for physician shortage, many countries around the world have introduced a cadre of mid-level healthcare providers (MLHPs) into their health systems to shoulder many of the conventional responsibilities of a physician. Besides backing their clinical competence and service quality, evidence and experience on MLHPs also supports their lower turnover and higher rural retention rates. In India, mainstreaming of MLHPs has time and again been met with resistance from organized medicine. We explore a fresh case for MLHPs in India in view of some recent developments and the probable future contours that Indian healthcare is likely to assume. Aided by global precedents, we broaden the rationale for mainstreaming MLHPs, address some common misunderstandings, and describe the conducive emergent legal and policy landscape. We also explain how a possible reorganization of Indian healthcare, highly likely under expanded publicly financed health insurance and value-based healthcare regimes, can warrant greater health workforce differentiation and an expanded role of MLHPs in mainstream healthcare delivery. We also touch upon important political economy considerations, including the need for navigating organized medical opposition, involving medical stakeholders in the MLHP mainstreaming process, autonomous regulation of MLHP professions, streamlining MLHP competencies, and inclusive health financing systems.