HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Affordable Care Act contains many provisions that should help relieve the shortage of primary care providers. It provides money to increase the number of medical residents, nurse practitioners and physician assistants trained in primary care, yielding more than 1,700 new primary care providers by 2015. It offers big bonuses for up to 5 hospitals to train advanced practice nurses and has demonstration projects to promote primary care coordination of complex illnesses, incorporating pharmacists and social workers in some cases.