A New Blueprint for Healthcare: Measuring the Entire Care Team

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – August 18, 2026 – The architecture of American healthcare is being redrawn. As physician shortages persist and an aging population drives up demand, the clinical workforce is rapidly diversifying. Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other skilled professionals are no longer just supporting players; they are integral decision-makers on the front lines of patient care. In response to this systemic shift, Motive Medical Intelligence has expanded its 'Practicing Wisely' performance measurement system, creating a unified standard to evaluate every clinician—from physicians to advanced practice providers (APPs) and allied health professionals (AHPs)—against the same evidence-based benchmarks.

This move by the healthcare performance analytics firm isn't merely a software update; it's an acknowledgment of a new reality. It aims to build a data-driven infrastructure of accountability for a system that has become profoundly team-based, ensuring that as care delivery evolves, the standards for quality and efficiency evolve with it.

A New Standard for a Changing Workforce

The rise of non-physician providers is one of the most significant trends shaping modern healthcare. According to a 2026 Columbia University School of Nursing analysis, the nurse practitioner (NP) workforce grew at an average annual rate of 10% between 2016 and 2023, dwarfing the 1.1% growth rate for physicians. Physician assistants (PAs) also saw a robust 8.6% annual growth in the same period. This surge isn't theoretical; it's changing patient interactions daily.

A September 2023 study published in a leading medical journal revealed that the proportion of outpatient Medicare visits handled by NPs and PAs soared from 14% in 2013 to nearly 26% by 2019. In that year, over 40% of all Medicare patients saw an NP or PA at least once. This growing reliance on APPs is filling critical gaps, particularly in primary care and underserved regions.

Until now, the systems designed to measure clinical performance have lagged behind, often focusing narrowly on physicians or tracking only the cost of care delivered by non-physician clinicians. Motive's expansion of Practicing Wisely addresses this gap by measuring the appropriateness and quality of clinical decisions, regardless of the provider's title. This provides a more complete view of performance across the entire care team, which is critical as organizations navigate the complexities of value-based care.

The Infrastructure of Accountability

At its core, Practicing Wisely is an evidence-based measurement system designed to reduce unwarranted variation in care. It analyzes vast amounts of claims data to compare a clinician's decisions against nationally recognized, evidence-based standards. The goal is to identify and reduce the use of unnecessary and low-value services, a primary driver of waste.

The challenge has been applying such a system to a workforce with diverse training and state-by-state variations in scope-of-practice laws. Motive's expanded capability navigates this complexity by evaluating APPs and AHPs only on the services they are licensed to perform, such as medication management, wellness visits, or prenatal screenings, while holding them to the same clinical standards as physicians for those shared services.

"The healthcare delivery landscape is changing rapidly, and initiatives to improve provider performance and reduce waste must reflect that," said Julie Scherer, Ph.D., Chief Solutions Officer at Motive. "We know that the clinical decisions made at the point of care drive quality and cost. Like physicians, APPs and AHPs make those decisions every day, and measuring them against the same evidence-based standards is essential to reducing waste and elevating quality of care."

Data Shows a Team Sport

Before launching the expansion, Motive's data science teams conducted a crucial analysis, comparing performance patterns across physicians, APPs, and AHPs. The findings were telling: performance was remarkably consistent. APPs and AHPs demonstrated comparable averages and variation across measures, and they tended to perform well in the same clinical environments where physicians also excelled.

This data challenges the notion that performance is solely tied to a clinician's title. Instead, it suggests that the practice environment—the systems, protocols, and culture of a clinic or hospital—is a powerful determinant of quality. This insight is fundamental to building the intelligent networks that enable better care.

"Healthcare is a team sport, and the data bears that out," Scherer continued. "Where you see high-performing physicians, you tend to see high-performing APPs and AHPs. Where you see variation among physicians, you see the same variation among APPs and AHPs. Measuring everyone, individually, who renders care—to a single, evidence-based standard—is the only way to drive meaningful improvement at scale."

Targeting the Trillion-Dollar Waste Problem

The stakes for such improvement are enormous. While Motive's press release highlights its goal of tackling over $400 billion in annual waste from unnecessary services, this figure is part of a much larger issue. A landmark 2019 JAMA study estimated total annual U.S. healthcare waste between $760 billion and $935 billion—a number that, when adjusted for current spending, approaches a staggering $1.6 trillion per year.

By providing granular, clinician-level insights, systems like Practicing Wisely equip healthcare organizations to target this waste with surgical precision. Instead of implementing broad, top-down cost-cutting measures, payers and providers can identify the specific clinicians, services, and care patterns that represent the greatest opportunities for improvement. This allows for targeted education, refined clinical pathways, and better alignment with value-based payment models that reward quality and efficiency over volume.

As healthcare moves away from fee-for-service and deeper into value-based arrangements, this level of insight becomes non-negotiable. The ability to understand and manage performance across the entire clinical team is the new digital backbone required to support a sustainable, high-quality healthcare system. Motive's initiative represents a critical step in building out that essential infrastructure, ensuring that as the face of healthcare delivery changes, the commitment to excellent, evidence-based patient care remains constant.