Here are the REAL figures based on BILLING medicare claims for 1999.
55% of total medicare surgical cases involve the services of Nurse Anesthetists, but in almost 75% of those cases, an Anesthesiologist medically directs or supervises the CRNA; in about 9.7% of the total cases, a non-anesthesiologist physician supervises the CRNA. In the balance of cases, an anesthesiologist personally performs the anesthesia procedure withoyt involvement of a nurse anesthetist.
This is from THE SCOPE OF PRACTICE OF NURSE ANESTHETISTS JANUARY 2004 by the ASA. Real data backed up by billing and not propoganda like the AANA and DD.
AGain, less than 10% of CRNA's practice without an Anesthesiologist and the vast majority of them work in BFE or rural USA. Only 1% work in the NICE locations without an Anesthesiologist.
Thus, the AA-C is a great way to get into the field without going to nursing school. This allows you to earn the same income as the VAST majority of CRNA's.