Economic benefits of less restrictive regulation of advanced practice nurses in North Carolina

Background: With looming provider shortages and increased demand for health care, many states are looking for low-cost ways to alleviate the shortages. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the economic impact of less restrictive regulations for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in North Carolina. Method: We use economic impact analysis to demonstrate the economic impacts of making state scope-of-practice regulations on APRNs less restrictive in North Carolina. Outcomes include economic output, value-added, payroll compensation, employment, and tax revenue for North Carolina and for various subregions. Discussion: If North Carolina adopted the same approach to APRN regulation as the least restrictive states, its economy will benefit from substantial increases in economic output and employment. The state will also see increases in tax revenue. Conclusions: In addition to substantially shrinking the size of projected physician shortages, allowing full scope-of-practice for APRNs will bring significant economic benefits to the state of North Carolina. Our analysis should be helpful to policy makers considering ways to deal with provider shortages.