NPs are registering new practices at nearly 6 times the 2019 rate

Nurse practitioners are going into business for themselves at a pace that has accelerated sharply since the pandemic. A new analysis of federal National Provider Identifier (NPI) registry data from Medical Boulevard found that NPs registered 5,097 new practices between Jan. 1 and Sept. 26, 2026. That is nearly six times the number registered in the same period of 2019 and almost as many as in all of 2025.

The growth comes even as fewer new NPs enter the workforce. New individual NP registrations have fallen 19% since 2023, yet the share of NPs opening their own practices has climbed steeply. Psychiatric and mental health NPs account for more than half of the new practices, which suggests outpatient and telehealth behavioral health is driving much of the trend.

The data also complicate the long-running scope of practice debate. Full-practice states have the most new NP practices per resident, but growth since 2022 has been strong under every regulatory regime. Florida and Texas lead the nation in raw counts, and both still restrict NP practice. Many physicians told Medical Economics that nurse practitioner independence has gone too far, and policymakers continue to find no easy solutions to the scope of practice debate.

The analysis counts registrations rather than confirmed openings, so the numbers signal intent rather than serving as a census of operating clinics.