A growing and serious gap separates doctors and patients, driven by insurance limits and bureaucratic hassles. It is changing the face of American health care — your future physician might not be an M.D. So who will take care of you? U.S. News found a variety of new healers are stepping in to fill the void, with psychologists, nurse practitioners, optometrists and oral surgeons doing things that were once the sole province of M.D.s. And despite the claims from physicians organizations that such practices are putting patients in danger, there is solid scientific evidence that these new healers are safe, competent and may even forge better relationships with patients than the doctors who went before them. Yet as their practices expand, they may reach the limits of their expertise and patient safety may soon become a real worry.
