Regional Variation in Scope of Practice by Family Physicians

Geographic variation in physician scope of practice (SOP) has been documented but the causes remain unknown. We examined whether geographic variation in family physician (FP) SOP is explained by differences in the characteristics of the FPs, their practices, practice environment, or health care market.

We utilized 2 datasets from the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) from 2017 to 2022. The National Graduate Survey captures early career FPs while the Continuous Certification Questionnaire is administered to mid to late career FPs. We used a SOP score that ranges from 0 to 30 with a larger score reflecting a broader SOP. Bivariate analyses assessed for differences by Census division in clinician, practice, community, and health care market characteristics. A series of multilevel linear regression analyses tested if geographic differences in SOP were attenuated by the aforementioned characteristics.

Our analytic included 9,378 early career FPs and 28,832 mid to late career FPs in the unadjusted regression model. We found significant differences in clinician characteristics by division and cohort. In unadjusted results, SOP score differed by division and career stage within division (range 11.49 to 14.95 for later career FPs and 15.22 to 17.51 for early career FPs). Adjusting for clinician, practice, community, and health care market characteristics did not attenuate divisional variation in SOP.

Significant geographic variation in FP SOP was not explainable by adjustment for clinician, practice, community, and health care market characteristics. This suggests that health care variation is multifactorial and will require more multifaceted interventions to ameliorate.