Primary care in America is collapsing from two directions at once.
On one side: a physician workforce that cannot keep pace with demand. The AAMC projects a shortage of 20,200 to 40,400 primary care physicians by 2036. HRSA has designated 7,488 Health Professional Shortage Areas for primary care alone - areas where 74 million Americans live and cannot reliably access a primary care provider. In rural counties, the shortage is not 1 or 2 percent. It is 48 percent.
On the other side: 385,000 nurse practitioners in the United States, clinically trained to diagnose, treat, prescribe, and manage complex patient panels. In 30 states plus Washington D.C., they already have full practice authority - the legal right to operate completely independently without physician supervision. They have the training. They have the license. They have the patients.
What they have not had is the infrastructure to act on any of it.
Corner Health just raised $32.5 million to fix that.
📊 The gap: 74 million America…
