Re: Why Only Non-Health Care Business Can Save America From The Health Care Industry

[Guest guest]

The question is: how many IMP's are there in "dead zones," and if so, are any of you charging NCBF or not contracted with insurance? We are definitely in an overserved area. Patients come and go every year based on what insurance their employer is offering. I would love to share with patients the small $ amount checks that they are paying their insurance co to send to us instead of simply paying us and asking their insurance to reimburse them (the patient) instead. Have been thinking a lot about payment models and at what point we could stand to give up patients in lieu of NCBF. Once I convince myself, I have to convince Steve! Pratt

Cool site! But I think I disagree (to an extent) with that author's thesis. I'd prefer to think that through leading by example, people like those of us on this list-serve have the power to totally revitalize primary care. The amount of actual value that health insurance offers has shrunken so dramatically over the years that the entire health-care 'industry' is primed for destabilization. The insurance industry has been trying (and largely succeeding) to rewrite the rules of the game so that doctors are forced to assume much of that administrative burden that they have imposed on us. By opting out of insurance-based models, primary care physicians can change the rules of that game. (Remember the golden rule: (S)he who has the gold, makes the rules.) Direct pay ideal micropractices are an ideal vehicle for doing just that. We can take back medicine from the clutches of the insurance industry (and alleviate a great deal of CMS's looming drain on the federal budget) by positioning ourselves as providers of medical care that's actually worth paying for. If we succeed (and things have now become so bad/inefficient in the mainstream healthcare 'industry' that it's almost hard to imagine that we won't), then there's going to be a *major* shift of power to leaner and meaner (or maybe i should say wiser and nicer) primary care providers in the near future. KenSent from my iPad

This is a beautiful and concise writing regarding our situation in the US today.

http://careandcost.com/2012/01/26/why-only-non-health-care-business-can-save-america-from-the-health-care-industry/#comments