TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Liability Involving Midlevel Practitioners A1 - Shore, Eric E. A2 - Quang, Tony S. A2 - Taft, Michelle S. A2 - Beriwal, Sushil Y1 - 2022 N1 - T2 - Understanding the Principles and Practice of Legal Oncology AB - Midlevel practitioners (MLPs) are increasingly becoming an important fixture in American health care, and although their use provides great opportunities to improve the provision of health care around the country, the novelty of their increasing scope of practice in a burgeoning number of jurisdictions presents their supervisors, and them, with the possibility of increased legal liability. It is important, therefore, to define who they are, what they do, and how best to protect them and their supervising physicians and institutions from liability. First, any reference to “physicians” or “doctors” in this chapter refers to graduates of accredited medical schools with the degrees of MD or DO. For our purposes, an MLP is a practitioner who is performing a function that has traditionally been thought of as being within the purview of medicine but who is not a physician. While there may be other providers that fit some portion of this category, for practical purposes, our discussion is limited to nurse practitioners (NPs), including those who have a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP), and physician assistants (PAs). Moreover, although these practitioners dislike being referred to as MLPs, that designation was placed on them more as a billing standard by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) than by physicians. MLPs came into existence for a reason, they persist for a reason, and when properly utilized, they can provide significant contributions to patient care and the efficiency of the health care system. It is only when their practice overreaches their education, training, and experience or they practice in a manner for which their training has not prepared them that difficulty begins. First, therefore, some background is provided. SN - PB - McGraw Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - hemonc.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1191393321 ER -