Removing the Third Party
I love the concept of independence. Unfortunately, when I came out of residency it was not an option. I was broke, had a family, and needed security after spending a decade of my “earning” years in school. Now, doctors are trying to eschew insurance and directly bill the patient and I love it! This is authentic. This is the answer. It has started small and doctors don’t have all the answers yet but these adventurous docs are the tip of the spear and they deserve all the credit in the world. I have mentioned my friend Josh over at www.atlas.md before. Now others are starting to follow or do their own thing. If you read the linked article you will see how some practices in some states have faced challenges from insurance commissioners. That’s good! That means they and the insurance companies who lobby them are threatened. This plan does not have to cater to the wealthy. It is also not a new concept. What was old is new again and can work. Hopefully, I will be there with them in future.
Things might look different from the patents view.
S/He gets a letter informing him/her that his/her health care providers no longer accept insurance.
I think it’s time to negotiate a much cheaper health insurance plan since my Doctors no longer accept insurance.
Then the patent needs to find out what the doctors fee schedule is and if they can afford it now.
So I see unhappy private for profit insurance companies making less profit and patients waiting longer and getting sicker before seeing a doctor.
Just like now only worse.
How about a high deductible plan for catastrophic insurance in case of a major accident, etc. Then $70 a month to see your doctor as often as you like. No copays. I think that is simple. And better. See http://www.atlas.md
Amen Doug, we should all hope for that concept to spread. We’ll know if direct billing/concierge/cash-only, etc is really taking hold when the pushback from insurance companies and government gets serious. When pushed, I predict the AMA, AAFP, IOM, CMS – all the usual suspects – to start floating all sorts of studies questioning the quality, safety and fairness of practices choosing to do without ICD-10 manuals to catalog all the freakin’ turtle bites.
Here’s the thing. I think the right person or group can not only stop pushback from insurance company but actually get them to embrace it! Remember, they don’t get billed by the doctors! Why wouldn’t they love it?