Watch This Video To See Why Medical Insurance Is Almost Fully Obsolete
This is Josh Umbehr MD, of Atlas.MD, discussing working directly with his patients, and cutting out the insurance and government bureaucrats. This lowers costs for the patients and increases the quality of care they receive. He delivers low-cost family medicine using a direct-pay membership model. Part of Umbehr’s philosophy is that insurance tends to complicate care delivery more than it helps. Under Umbehr’s membership model, patients receive unlimited visits with no co-pays. This is the future of family medicine.
The “Atlas” docs and others who deliver Direct Primary Care are the only physicians who can accurately claim to truly work for, and only for the patient. My sincere respect to you all.
Thank you very much for your support.
“The “Atlas” docs and others who deliver Direct Primary Care are the only physicians who can accurately claim to truly work for, and only for the patient. My sincere respect to you all.”
While I agree in sentiment, there are many great physicians, PAs and NPs breaking their backsides providing high quality care in SPITE of the insanity of the system we all live under. Unfair to say the “Atlas” physicians or anyone else are the only ones working for patients. Many do.
Dave
Dave, I disagree. I am in the same boat as you, though I know I am a doc and you are a PA. We are the bitches of our employers, insurance companies, and the government. To say otherwise means you believe that a 99214 means anything. To say otherwise means that you believe that it is important to match a diagnosis with a lab order because it means something. I could go on but I have to go do some meaningless clicks on some charts to make some administrator a big bonus.
Thanks Doug, and I agree that often we are wasting our talents with the busywork of insurance red tape and bureaucracy.
Dave I understand what you mean, it is not that we are asking for special praise. We acknowledge that all caregivers are trying to do their best but often in a broken system. It is not that we are better, just that we have taken a substantial risk to experiment with the new model for the sake of our patients. We hope to help all doctors, providers transition to the direct care model in the next few years. Which is why we do all of our consulting for free.
Guys: I am really 100% supportive of what you are doing. I entered medicine in the mid-70s and the changes I have seen are insane. I have not practiced for years but my close friends are all in practice and I more than hear what they go through. The administrators, the rules, the nonsense they go through would cause me to leave or find a practice that does what Atlas does. Or if necessary, start one.
Atlas I am in your corner.
Dave
Thanks Dave, I appreciate the support.
Doug: I get this. It’s the way to go. What happens to the patient that has a an illness that needs to be hospitalized for a week? Can you get insurance that just covers hospitalizations and specialists without covering primary care? I’m not sure how that all works? Dave
Hi Dave, yes we still recommend insurance that covers hospitalizations etc. direct primary care is meant to offer affordable access to the majority of health care that patients need in a given time span. We have discounted rates with many specialists. Were also able to work with employers to decrease insurance premiums by 30 to 60%.
But isn’t that what insurance is for? The term catastrophic health insurance is redundant because all insurance is meant for catastrophic scenarios.
Hey Josh, what is the call like?
Call is great. Less than a call a night.
Is there any way of finding these clinics in a given state? Is there a central registry?
One of the things that impresses me the most is that patients are seen by physicians rather than by nurses.
Yep, there’s a website for doctors and patients http://www.iwantdirectcare.com
This is a great concept. It’s been happening in the DFW area for a few years and it works. http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/special-report-dallas-medical-directory/why-concierge-medicine-is-good-for-patients-and-physicians
Great idea to augment insurance and meet the medical needs for routine care that can be handled in the office. You would still need insurance to cover major illness or injury, necessitating potentially expensive in hospital care.
Hi Linda, you’re absolutely correct. But you don’t have car insurance for gasoline, why have health insurance for primary care? When we can charge $10-100/mo/pt based on age only for unlimited visits, no copays, all office procedures for free and wholesale pricing on meds/labs for up to a 95% savings. Which in turn helps lower ins premiums for employers.
So now you have more affordable insurance for the big things and more affordable care for everything else.
Hi Atlas; What if you are on Medicare? What if you don’t really have insurance? Or are all these people just left to go by the system that clearly does not satisfy their needs?
Dave Mittman, PA, DFAAPA
Good question Dave. Medicare/medicaid patients are still able to participate in direct care practices. Also, 1/3 of our patients are uninsured. The point is that all patients need/want better care and lower prices. I argue that poorer patients need DPC models MORE than anyone else b/c they need the savings more than anyone.