Shame on the legislature for buckling under to MedChi ("New Md. law smoothes the way for nurse practitioners," April 14). Patient care is not the physicians' concern in pushing for the state to maintain the requirement that nurse practitioners not be allowed to practice independently from doctors; it is the 30 percent of the nurse practitioner's profit they take to sign a piece of paper and hope no one bothers them afterwards. Even in health centers where the doctor is in the same set offices, the nurse practitioner is the primary care provider.

Take a lesson from Washington, D.C. if the legislators really want to provide expanded health care.

Rosemary Catalana, Towson