Via Reddit: Dr. Bryan Hill spent his career working as a pediatrician, teaching at a university, and working at a hospital. But in March 2016, he decided he no longer wanted a boss.
He took some time off, then one day he got a call asking if he'd be up for doing a house call for a woman whose son was sick. He agreed, and by the end of that visit, he realized he wanted to treat patients without dealing with any of the insurance requirements.
Then he learned about a totally different way to run a doctor's office. It's called direct primary care, and it works like this: Instead of accepting insurance for routine visits and drugs, these practices charge a monthly membership fee that covers most of what the average patient needs, including visits and drugs at much lower prices.
That sounded good to him. In September, Hill opened his direct-primary-care pediatrics practice, Gold Standard Pediatrics, in South Carolina.
He took some time off, then one day he got a call asking if he'd be up for doing a house call for a woman whose son was sick. He agreed, and by the end of that visit, he realized he wanted to treat patients without dealing with any of the insurance requirements.
Then he learned about a totally different way to run a doctor's office. It's called direct primary care, and it works like this: Instead of accepting insurance for routine visits and drugs, these practices charge a monthly membership fee that covers most of what the average patient needs, including visits and drugs at much lower prices.
That sounded good to him. In September, Hill opened his direct-primary-care pediatrics practice, Gold Standard Pediatrics, in South Carolina.
(Link to the rest of the story.)
11 comments:
Why, yes, it does sound too good to be true.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
As a patient, this sounds really good. If you carry a catastrophic insurance policy, which used to be really quite cheap, and choose a deductible that you can afford, then all of your routine care is taken care of inexpensively. Maybe even couple your catastrophe policy with a MSA then you are good to go.
The reason everything costs so much is due to insurance costs and the inability of the Doctors to charge the actual costs of treatment.
Most people don't need a full blown insurance plan and for those occasional sniffles, cuts, routine check ups and even blood work....the out of pocket costs are minimal.
Going to the doctor should not be like buying a car, unless you are going to a proctologist.
Grossman Wellness does something like that in Denver.
Government sucks the innovation out of healthcare.
...every time it's tried.
My health insurance was $4 a month in 1970. Insurance didn't kick in until you hit a thousand dollars in medical costs. When I retired I was covered by a PPO,no monthly cost
but a 5000 deductible. The good thing about having that insurance was, even though I paid the bills, they had negotiated costs with the providers which were about a third of what they were trying to bill you.
After Obamacare passed I had to start paying in monthly, it was cheap at first but then would treble every year.
Next month I will be on medicare, In addition to that monthly cost the supplementals run about $241 a month. I am lucky that my company will provide a yearly HRA that will cover those costs, but if insurance rates keep skyrocketing I'll probably be priced out of that coverage.
I went to the doctor one time. I said, "Doctor! Is there nothing I can take?" I said, "Doctor! To relieve this bellyache." I said, "Doctor! I is there nothing I can take?" I said, "Doctor! To relieve this bellyache."
Oh let me get this straight.
He goes, "Put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up. You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up. You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up. I said, "Doctor! you sure repeat yourself a lot." I said, "Doctor! You sure repeat yourself a lot." He goes, "Put the lime in the coconut and shut the fuck up." He said, "Put the lime in the coconut and shut the fuck up."
You do put the lime in the coconut. you do you do!
A lot of top notch shrinks don't accept insurance.
ndspinelli said...
A lot of top notch shrinks don't accept insurance.
That's right, because they are in high demand and they don't want to fuck around with the insurance business, so it's either cash or check.
Post a Comment