Max Mello
Director of Physician & APP Recruitment
Healthcare Recruiting · Colorado
Physician, PA & NP recruiting in Colorado, grounded in the market's real numbers.
We track Colorado's provider workforce from federal data that updates every month, the same numbers we use when we take a search. Here is the current picture, and what it means if you are hiring.
Provider supply
Who practices in Colorado today
Individual providers with an active Colorado practice address, from the federal NPI registry (June 2026).
21,965
Physicians
7,598
Nurse practitioners
5,474
Physician assistants
Over the last 12 months, Colorado added 424 newly enrolled nurse practitioners, 85 physicians, and 132 physician assistants to the registry. New NP enrollments outpaced new physicians: the advanced-practice workforce is growing faster than the physician base, and hiring plans that ignore that mix are competing for the scarcer pool.
Source: CMS NPPES registry, June 2026.
Demand
Employment is growing on both sides of the market
Federal quarterly employment data for Colorado healthcare employers.
Hospitals
71,379 employed, up 10.8% year over year. Average wages up 1.4% over the same period.
Ambulatory care
170,014 employed across 17,105 sites, and the site count itself is up 9.7% year over year: more locations competing for the same clinicians.
Source: BLS QCEW, statewide, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025.
Compensation
What Colorado pays
Mean annual wages from the federal occupational employment survey. Offers below these lines explain their own vacancy.
| Role | Employed in Colorado | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Family medicine physicians | 2,700 | $249,500 |
| Nurse practitioners | 4,270 | $132,540 |
| Physician assistants | 3,270 | $139,580 |
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 estimates.
Shortage pressure
241 federally designated primary care shortage areas in Colorado.
31 of them score in the high-need range. If your facility sits in or near one, you are not imagining it: the supply math is against you, and every open req is competing with 241 other designated areas for the same clinicians. That is the search we run every day.
Source: HRSA HPSA primary care detail file.
Tell us about the opening
Hiring in Colorado?
Tell us about the role. We'll give you an honest read on the market for it: who's movable, what they expect, and a realistic timeline.