Reminds me of going to the MD as a child. Small office, one nurse and Mom paid cash when we left.
Yeah, me too.
However, my Mom had a job that had a “new” perk: 100% employer-paid health insurance.
What happened was this: Mom would go, or take us, to the Doctor. She would pay, or make arrangements to pay, the doctor on the way out. She’d take her receipt to work, get a form thereat, and file with the insurance company herself. A month or so later, she’d get a check from the insurance company to pay for their contracted share of the bill. Worked like a charm.
All this “managed care” crap has done is drive up the cost of healthcare services due to increased compliance costs; those costs are mostly due to goobermint interference, since private insurance companies have fallen in line with the compliance requirements of Medicare - and they barely pay more than Medicare anyway.