NPs in Private Practice

[pywacit]

Are there any NPs in private practice on this board? And any specifically in Alabama? I"m curious about a day in the life of a NP in private practice, average cost of running your own practice, patient load, what is the insurance reimbursement rate for an NP and how much experience does one need to open their own practice (can you open your own practice right soon after graduating- I"m assuming no, but I am curious).

Thanks in advance.

[TheOracle]

I'm not a NP, but that is my goal, but I work for a NP in a primary/urgent care clinic in Mississippi.

As far as the cost of running the practice, I don't know specifics. But when you take into account things like rent, utilities, salaries for staff, supplies, etc it gets pretty expensive. That's not considering if you want to have a full lab and x-ray imaging onsite. I'm also not sure of the reimbursement from insurances.

Since you're in Alabama you should look into HRSA (http://www.hrsa.gov). HRSA provides grants to organizations in order to expand health care to the under-served and also has programs where you can have some of your loans paid for working in or operating a HRSA facility.

The number of patients you see would depend on your area. But for us Fridays and Saturdays are busiest with an overall lull in the summer time.

Our NP stays fairly busy. We're equipped for primary care and urgent care, but we lean toward urgent care. We're who the patients come to when their usual provider is closed or booked up. That said, a lot of the patients like us and the NP and end up coming in for their primary care. We see a lot of flu, strep, sinusitis, and other URI type stuff as well as UTI, STD, EPSDT pts, sprains and strains, lacerations, etc.