For the last thirty years, Podiatrists and the APMA always thought the real threat to Podiatry as a profession and staff at hospitals was Orthopedic Surgeons.  The belief was that Orthopedic Surgeons will limit privileges, keep Podiatrists off insurance panels and just generally bad mouth Podiatrists.  The issue being only 5% of Orthopedic Surgeons ever cared about Podiatrists, most Orthopedic Surgeons are focused on Knees, Hips and Femurs.   A lot of Orthopedic Surgeons took the attitude of let the Podiatrists have the foot and sometimes the ankle. There is not a lot of money to be made there anyways.

Heck, Podiatrists started to be added to Orthopedic groups, why? Because as the story goes Podiatrists showed their value.   At the end of the day money talks and if a Podiatrist can produce 600k of revenue and only make 200k, that is a 400k profit for the Orthopedic groups.  Soon Medical groups did the math and added Podiatrists as well.  Now, the APMA will tell you it’s because Podiatrists are best at treating the foot, not that Podiatrists salary demands are less than Orthopedic surgeons and they tend to produce similar revenue.

But what if a group came a long that could treat the foot and ankle as well, but with less salary demands.  Won’t the same forces that started the boom of hiring Podiatrists at Medical Groups and Orthopedic Groups take shape?  Remember, one of the keys for Podiatry’s growth was the fact that Orthopedists didn’t need the jobs or the money.  Well Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants do.  Check out these articles already written about the PA and NP supply:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309141544_When_will_physician_assistant_supply_exceed_demand

https://www.mdedge.com/clinicianreviews/article/189902/practice-management/are-we-overproducing-nps-and-pas

Right now the HRSA projects that there will be an oversupply of 42.5k Nurse Practitioners by 2025 or 62% above projected demand. For Physician Assistants that number is expected to be 19.7k above demand or a 66% over supply. I will include this number because so many Podiatrists hate them: CRNA are headed for a 10k oversupply which is 19% over demand.  Currently in the United states there are 350 Nurse Practitioner schools and 220 Physician Assistant schools. The numbers that are graduating are staggering (on a side note people got pissed when Podiatry went from 7 schools to 8).  You probably think then why are their salaries still high except Physician Assistant and NP salaries are currently decreasing.

https://www.midlevelu.com/blog/where-are-physician-assistant-salaries-decreasing

You probably think well they have no interest in replacing Podiatrists. Oh yeah, check out this Physician Assistant Indeed Job board for the Foot and Ankle Orthopedics:

https://www.indeed.com/q-Physician-Assistant-Orthopedic-Foot-Ankle-jobs.html

It’s pretty clear the model right now that will be pushed is to have one Foot and Ankle Orthopedic surgeon with 2-3 PA’s and NP’s seeing cases and funneling the surgeries to him.  That is cheaper than hiring 2-3 Podiatrists. If you are bored look at all the courses on the internet for NP’s and PA’s who are thinking about pursuing Foot and Ankle jobs and certifications.  There was an article written in Podiatry Today in 2015 encouraging Podiatrists to hire NP’s and PA’s. It appears now the author got the trend wrong.  It is NP’s and PA’s that will be replacing Podiatry. It’s going to happen; it’s going to happen soon.  The APMA was asleep at the wheel.