diff --git a/pandas/_testing/asserters.py b/pandas/_testing/asserters.py
index daa5187cdb636..267b4cd9ef884 100644
--- a/pandas/_testing/asserters.py
+++ b/pandas/_testing/asserters.py
@@ -1316,6 +1316,20 @@ def assert_frame_equal(
             lcol = left._ixs(i, axis=1)
             rcol = right._ixs(i, axis=1)
 
+            # Fix for issue #61473: Handle pd.NA values when check_dtype=False
+            if not check_dtype:
+                # Normalize both pd.NA and np.nan to the same representation for comparison
+                # This allows comparison between object and Int32 dtypes with pd.NA
+                lcol_normalized = lcol.copy()
+                rcol_normalized = rcol.copy()
+                
+                # Replace all null values (pd.NA, np.nan) with a consistent representation
+                lcol_normalized = lcol_normalized.where(lcol_normalized.notna(), np.nan)
+                rcol_normalized = rcol_normalized.where(rcol_normalized.notna(), np.nan)
+                
+                lcol = lcol_normalized
+                rcol = rcol_normalized
+
             # GH #38183
             # use check_index=False, because we do not want to run
             # assert_index_equal for each column,
diff --git a/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py b/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py
index ea954756d63c8..1d8a0119e55e0 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_frame_equal.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import pandas as pd
 from pandas import DataFrame
 import pandas._testing as tm
+import numpy as np
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(params=[True, False])
@@ -395,3 +396,23 @@ def test_assert_frame_equal_set_mismatch():
     msg = r'DataFrame.iloc\[:, 0\] \(column name="set_column"\) values are different'
     with pytest.raises(AssertionError, match=msg):
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, df2)
+
+
+def test_assert_frame_equal_na_dtype_mismatch():
+    # GH#61473 - Test that pd.NA values are handled correctly when check_dtype=False
+    df1 = DataFrame({"a": [pd.NA, 1, 2]}, dtype="Int64")
+    df2 = DataFrame({"a": [np.nan, 1, 2]}, dtype="float64")
+    
+    # This should pass with our fix
+    tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, df2, check_dtype=False)
+    
+    # This should still fail when check_dtype=True
+    msg = (
+        "Attributes of DataFrame\\.iloc\\[:, 0\\] "
+        '\\(column name="a"\\) are different\n\n'
+        'Attribute "dtype" are different\n'
+        "\\[left\\]:  Int64\n"
+        "\\[right\\]: float64"
+    )
+    with pytest.raises(AssertionError, match=msg):
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, df2, check_dtype=True)