Anti-physician propaganda from Texas

Based on multiple reports circulating on social media, it seems that the nurse practitioner lobby in Texas is actively attempting to discredit physicians and the group Physicians for Patient Protection (PPP) as part of their effort their to push for full practice authority via House Bill 2029 and Senate Bill 915 in the state legislature. Take a look at these cards they're handing out around the state capital:

Small? They clearly haven't seen the size of the PPP Facebook group, which numbers well over 10,000. Not that we want them too, because midlevels aren't welcome there.

And man, where do we get started with this? "False, negative propaganda?" PPP's articles and posts have always been cogent, factual, and well-informed, unlike, for example, the AANP's comical attempt to discredit a WGN news report that drew attention to avoidable patient deaths that occurred as a direct result of NP mismanagement.

And whoever made this card clearly didn't get the memo that quantity is not a substitute for quality, especially in medicine. A monkey can see patients too, but that doesn't say anything about the quality of care (or lack thereof) they're providing. How many of those NP visits resulted in unnecessary tests? Unnecessary referrals? Unnecessary return visits or ER visits as a direct result of mismanagement on the part of the nurse practitioner? And what a coincidence that they conveniently forgot to provide a source for one of their most important talking points, that NPs and physicians rank similarly on outcomes and patient satisfaction. When you look at all the examples of midlevel incompetence we've gathered here at MidlevelWTF, it's hard to imagine anything but the opposite.

As we know, the nurse practitioner and pro-FPA lobby just loves to masturbate over the fact that midlevels have lower malpractice rates than physicians. Well, duh. When physicians are the ones carrying more robust malpractice policies and supervising midlevels, it's a no-brainer who the plaintiff's malpractice attorney is going to go after in hopes of the biggest payout. When you begin to dig into the nitty-gritty of malpractice claim data, it becomes abundantly clear that the argument falls apart. In fact, per the linked study, "Approximately three quarters of medical malpractice awards for PAs and NPs, but only about one half for physicians, reflected diagnosis- or treatment-related events." Not terribly surprising, given the substantially lesser education that midlevels - particularly nurse practitioners - receive. There's a reason why you don't see physicians asking people on Facebook for help because you have no idea how to deal with vaginal discharge.

Finally, we also find it highly comical and ironic that they accuse PPP of "poisoning the uninformed". Who's doing the poisoning, exactly, when you're pushing for independent practice and trying to blur the lines between physicians with years of medical school and residency under the belt, and noctors with as little as 500 hours of clinical exposure? And don't even talk about income when you're the ones opening up rural Botox clinics, dancing on TikTok about your future salary, and fleecing patients with $350 telehealth consultations.