ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2020
Opioid Prescribing by Primary Care Providers: a Cross-Sectional Analysis of Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, and Physician Prescribing Patterns.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Impact of physician assistants on quality of care: rapid review.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- Nurse Practitioner Opioid Prescribing Authority: A Comparative Policy Analysis of New Zealand, United States, and Australia.Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing · 2026Article
- Identifying and analyzing high-prescribers of opioids and antibiotics using medicare part D data.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2026Article
- Emergency department opioid prescribing trends among provider types: an analysis of the NHAMCS, 2019-2021.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Medical Student Attitudes Toward Advanced Practice Provider Independence Legislation.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM · 2025Article
- Declines in Tapentadol Use in the US but Pronounced Regional Variation.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- High-Risk Opioid Prescribing and Nurse Practitioner Independence.JAMA health forum · 2024Article
- Article
- Pragmatic Emergency Department Intervention Reducing Default Quantity of Opioid Tablets Prescribed.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Drug-related physician continuing medical education requirements, 2010-2020.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2024Article
- The role of the physician associate in the United Kingdom.Future healthcare journal · 2024Article
- Article
- Opioid Prescribing for Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions: Trends over Time and Implementation of Safe Opioid-Prescribing Practices.Applied clinical informatics · 2023Article
- The role of restrictive scope-of-practice regulations on the delivery of nurse practitioner-delivered home-based primary care.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Article
- Reply to:Journal of market access & health policy · 2023Article
- Unsolicited reporting notifications (URNs) through Maryland's prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP): Characteristics of providers.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2022Article
- Influence of provider type on chronic pain prescribing patterns A systematic review.Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners · 2022Article
- Pain management on a trauma service: a crisis reveals opportunities.Trauma surgery & acute care open · 2022Article
- Nurse Practitioner Scope-of-Practice Laws and Opioid Prescribing.The Milbank quarterly · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrescription opioid overprescribing is a focal point for legislators, but little is known about opioid prescribing patterns of primary care nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs).
objectiveTo identify prescription opioid overprescribers by comparing prescribing patterns of primary care physicians (MDs), nurse practitioners (NPs), and physician assistants (PAs).
designRetrospective, cross-sectional analysis of Medicare Part D enrollee prescription data.
participantsTwenty percent national sample of 2015 Medicare Part D enrollees. MAIN MEASURES: We identified potential opioid overprescribing as providers who met at least one of the following: (1) prescribed any opioid to > 50% of patients, (2) prescribed ≥ 100 morphine milligram equivalents (MME)/day to > 10% of patients, or (3) prescribed an opioid > 90 days to > 20% of patients. KEY
resultsAmong 222,689 primary care providers, 3.8% of MDs, 8.0% of NPs, and 9.8% of PAs met at least one definition of overprescribing. 1.3% of MDs, 6.3% of NPs, and 8.8% of PAs prescribed an opioid to at least 50% of patients. NPs/PAs practicing in states with independent prescription authority were > 20 times more likely to overprescribe opioids than NPs/PAs in prescription-restricted states.
conclusionsMost NPs/PAs prescribed opioids in a pattern similar to MDs, but NPs/PAs had more outliers who prescribed high-frequency, high-dose opioids than did MDs. Efforts to reduce opioid overprescribing should include targeted provider education, risk stratification, and state legislation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.