This is something I know a little bit about. I'm not a fan of this bait n switch practice either. As others have said one reason it's done is to increase access

This is something I know a little bit about. I'm not a fan of this bait n switch practice either. As others have said one reason it's done is to increase access and/or reduce costs. > They will charge your insurance for a doctors visit but only have Nurses and P.A's available to see. I can't comment on how One Medical bills for this sort of thing. But almost always, at any other "standard" clinic/hospital/etc, they will get reimbursed by the payor for 80% of what a physician would get paid for an equivalent visit. As a general rule of thumb, payors reimburse mid-level providers (nurse practitioners/physician assistant/etc) at 80% of the physician equivalent reimbursement. If you do a little napkin math you can see why there is a financial incentive to use mid-level providers. Say a family physician makes $250k and a nurse practitioner makes $125k each year, and if they bill for a similar amount of visits in dollars each year, say $500k worth. For the physician the clinic has a $250k profit, for the nurse practitioner they have a $500k * 80% = $400k, minus the $125k salary, so $275k profit. I have no idea about other tradeoffs (quality, access, etc) regarding the use of mid-level providers in replacement of traditionally physician services.