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Family Nurse Practitioner Salaries

By an allied health world contributing writer
Published: January, 14 2011

What is the average salary of a family nurse practitioner?

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average family nurse practitioner salary is $86,000. There are regional variations, with urban settings typically drawing higher salaries than more rural settings due to the increased cost of living.

Salary averages for some of the larger metropolitan areas around the country are:

• Chicago: $89,000
• Portland: $73,000
• Los Angeles: $88,000
• Dallas: $81,000
• Miami: $81,000

What factors can influence my salary as a family nurse practitioner?

Experience is the single biggest factor when it comes to influencing salary. While recent education, training and family nurse practitioner certification is helpful in a field like health care where information is fluid and changes every few years, nothing compares to a practitioner who has learned his or her trade. Nursing is a hands-on career, so learning to read a patient well, developing the skills that inspire confidence, and becoming a practitioner able to deliver quality care takes practice and exposure to the wide variety of patients that a family nurse practitioner will encounter in his or her practice. Learning the sophisticated interaction between condition and symptoms, medication and treatments, and interpretation of tests comes with time; and employers really value those abilities.

In addition to experience, practitioners who keep their skills current are also valuable to health care organizations that hire family nurse practitioners. As research evolves and technologies advance, treatments and diagnostics change as do some of the philosophies behind the delivery of good care. Most states require family nurse practitioners to complete annual or bi-annual continuing education requirements, which allow FNPs to stay current in the areas of health care research and treatment changes.

Additionally, family nurse practitioners can pursue more advanced training or certification in special treatment areas that increase their contribution to the health care organization they work for. Becoming an expert in some of the most common aspects of care improves the quality of the service that a doctor’s office or clinic can offer. From forensic nursing to wound care to diabetic specialists, there are many areas of nursing complex enough to warrant enhancing one’s skills with specialty education or certification to establish one’s self as a more desirable employee.

Do family nurse practitioners bill insurance companies?

Yes. Unlike the services provided by an LVN or RN, the services of a family nurse practitioner are considered direct care, and Medicare, Medicaid and many private insurance companies reimburse them directly.

In larger hospitals, services are bundled together and family nurse practitioners may or may not bill their services independently. However, those holding family nurse practitioner jobs in clinics of physician practices will find their services can be billed just like a doctor’s can. This also means that in states where a supervisory or collaborative relationship with a doctor is not required family nurse practitioners could establish private practices where they bill their care directly to insurance companies.