NP owning their own practice?

In peroria Illinois, I bumped into a Family Nurse Practitioner. She had been working as a FNP at a large urology for sometime but decided to open her own clinic. She also had a strong background in psy. Here's how it worked for her. She was only focused on Female health and would see patients for female sexual function, anxiety, depression. She has a small office and I am guessing she'd be getting many patients from the urology group she previously worked for, word of mouth, advertising. Of course, she could also write scripts for say a chest cold or bladder/yeast infection.... however she was focused more on the psy ascpect. I forget the exact numbers but she could bill medicare at something like 70 or 80 percent of what a regular MD bills out. She was required to have a MD (she was bring in one of her MDs from her previous urology group) who wold come in 1 time per month to review her treatment plans. I guess that protocal is BS since a Urologist probably won't be exactly up to date on female depression but somehow it was what the state required. Anyway, it was really something and proved to me that it could be done. She was very happy and I think well paid at her Urology group but her true passion was the above stated. That's it. Good Luck.

I have heard that the main difference b/w PA and NP is that NP can own their own practice, they don't have to work under someone, while a PA works in a doctor's office. I have seen many PAs that work in doctors offices, but I have never seen a NP that owned their own practice...what is the reason for this? Does anyone know anybody that does? I am interested in being a NNP so I plan on working in a NICU, obviously in a hospital, I was just wondering about this.

Hi there, I do own my own practice in upstate NY. The real upstate, on the Canadian border. I have owned my own practice since 1999. There are a few of us in NYS who do own their practice. It took a lot of work and $$. There are a pair of NP's in Syracuse ( Pat Donnelly and Mary Oot), who are a wealth of knowledge. Do you belong to the NPA? They have a website that may be helpful to you. There are several PA's that own practices too. As an NP, I still have to have a collaborating MD.

Hope this clarifies some things for you. Good luck.