Profit driven focus on quantity instead of quality (Score 1)

In the name of improving access to care (a true problem), these start-ups (and large hospital systems) have been hiring armies of Nurse Practitioners, who have very little training. Hospitals love NPs because they cost less but they can charge about the same as a MD. Look at how little training NPs get: https://i.redd.it/cugrt5qfopn5... [Infographic: training differences NPs vs MDs vs Petsmart vs etc.] Moreover, some of them do an additional year of "training" and get a DNP, a doctorate of nurse practitioner, which is a nonclinical degree (focusing on research or administration), yet then present themselves as doctor, which is confusing to patients. Psychiatry is just not a field that can be sped up. It takes a thorough evaluation to understand the core drivers of one's challenges, and to then come up with a treatment approach that targets that cause. That these NPs are spending only 30 minutes on an intake shows they don't know what they are doing or that they do not care about quality care. That Cerebral only has a handful of physicians to oversee 1200+ NPs shows that they do not care either. The prior chief medical officer of cerebral is suing them because he was fired after asking them to spend money on compliance (e.g., ensuring that people aren't just getting multiple prescriptions of stimulants sent to various addresses for diversion). I am all for entrepreneurship and using technology to provide more affordable, accessible care, but not if safety and quality are oversights. Patients deserve to get quality care and to know who is providing it. With hospitals and nursing lobbies advocating for "full practice authority" and autonomy without oversight, prepare for it to be harder and harder to see a medical doctor when you want one.