Posted on 04/04/2013 11:33:45 PM PDT by grundle
Patients should welcome this development. Not only does the move toward direct payment have the potential to reduce health costs — it could also yield higher-quality care.
Even before Obamacare, direct-pay practices were growing in popularity. According to the Center for Studying Health System Change, direct-payment practices increased from 9.2 percent of the market in 2001 to 12.4 percent by 2008.
Nearly 7 percent of doctors say they are planning to change to some form of direct-pay care in the next three years, according to a survey of 13,000 doctors done for the Physicians Foundation. The consulting firm Accenture projects that one in three doctors in independent practice will adopt “subscription-based care models.”
One direct payment model that’s growing in popularity is “concierge” care, whereby doctors charge a monthly or annual fee for care — and bypass the administrative headaches associated with insurance and government programs altogether. The American Academy of Private Physicians — which represents cash-only doctors — estimates that the number of concierge doctors has shot up 30 percent in just the last year.
Examples of these practices abound.
Qliance, for instance, offers primary and preventive care for less than $90 a month in several cities in Washington state. In January, the company raised $8.6 million to expand beyond its home state.
One Medical in San Francisco charges patients between $150 and $200 a year for same-day appointments, online prescriptions, and email access to doctors. And in Portland, Oregon, patients at the Multnomah Family Care Center can pay a one-time enrollment fee and then monthly membership and provider fees that average less than $60 a month for preventative care. Others include Atlas MD, MedLion, Simple Care, and Paladina Health.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Not only does the move toward direct payment have the potential to reduce health costs — it could also yield higher-quality care.
Exactly, it doesn’t matter if it’s the government paying medical bills or if it’s an insurance company, prices are driven up. It gets even worse if a third party is paying the insurance premiums. People need to be responsible for their medical decisions and together with their doctors they need to devise the best course of action that they can afford.
This is true. We always paid a lot more attention to our medical bills when we had a traditional indemnity plan versus one of these in network provider plans that we have now - all we pay are co-pays.
I have paid $40 per chiropractic visit the last 6 years. I get the same tx as the “insured” patients. (Oh, I paid $30 to a different provider 26 years ago.) The office closes on Fridays to process insurance paperwork.
Great idea! Pay my doc with cigarettes!! LOL
Bump
No way the collectivists will allow pure capitalism.
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