Posted by stanley on December 14, 2008, 10:56 am, in reply to "Re: Colorado AAs"
Yes and no, a physician can be ab employee of a hospital and sign over billing rights as can a CRNA, the issue is two fold 1. Economic the AA must practice under an anesthesiologist, for this reason even if both were hospital employees one has the job because the other exists. EX. if a anesthesiologist supervises 4 AA's you have 5 anesthesia employees for 4 cases, why because the AA MUST be supervised by an anesthesiologist, vs 4 CRNA's for 4 cases no supervision required UH-OH end of jobs program. 2. Practice rights, some of us prefer autonomy in our workplace, we decide the anesthetic the intraoperative management vs being told what to do.
In both cases the CRNA may have signed over billing rights but I can tell you now no supervision makes the job much nicer.