Bringing the doctor-patient relationship back by cutting the administrative paper pushers (heart, insurance)

[james011]

New York Times: Concierge Medical Care With a Smaller Price Tag

This is the future of primary care. For a retaining fee of $150 to $200 a year, you can make same day appointment and see a real doctor (not nurse practitioner) who will spend time with you and track your progress in between your visits.

Moderator cut: no copyrighted images allowed

[quote=from article]One Medical Group doctors see at most 16 patients a day; the nationwide average for primary-care physicians is 25. They welcome e-mail communication with patients, for no extra charge. Moderator cut: too long a quote, 1-2 sentences only

[Charles]

Every time I'm in a doctors office all those other staff people look pretty busy. who is doing the work if half of them are gone?
This almost seems like "Lexus Lane" medical practice/
What happens when everyone wants to do this? Back to the same old scheduling?

[Basiliximab]

Originally Posted by Charles

Every time I'm in a doctors office all those other staff people look pretty busy. who is doing the work if half of them are gone?

If I had to take a stab at it, I would guess that a good part of the staff that you see at doctor offices are busy with insurance B.S. What is great about this idea is that it cuts insurance companies out of the picture and puts the doctor-patient relationship back to the way it should be--without the insurance companies trying to run everything.

I would say a good percentage--if not most--doctors today are slaves to the insurance companies who demand this ridiculous and impractical "overscheduling" of patients, which probably is at the heart of why doctors have no time to spend with their patients (my sister is a doctor, and she explained to me how insurance companies make a lot of doctors' lives a living hell).

My roommate went to one of these doctors who do a flat-year rate that excludes insurance, and he says it was just like he remembers it when he saw the doctor years ago as a child. The physician was able to spend a lot of time with him and really discuss the problem he was having.

It's a complete joke how it is with usual doctors: you spend most of the time with the nurse and perhaps 5-10 minutes (which generally seems very rushed) with the doctor. How any competent physician is suppose to come to an understanding of a patient's situation in that limited time is beyond me. Perhaps if every patient presented with a textbook illness it might be possible, but each human body is so individualized; illnesses can be rather complex and the way they present quite varied. Even the way medication works for each patient can vary a great deal.

I really hope this idea takes off. I am up to here with these meddling insurance companies trying to play doctor, telling patients what they can and can't have, telling doctors what they can and can't do. The hoops they make patients and doctors jump through to get their needed medical care is a great flaming pot of Moderator cut: rude and it couldn't come soon enough for me if all these damn parasitic insurance companies along with their thick-skulled executives waste away into the nothingness where they belong and deserve to be.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Basiliximab

If I had to take a stab at it, I would guess that a good part of the staff that you see at doctor offices are busy with insurance B.S. What is great about this idea is that it cuts insurance companies out of the picture and puts the doctor-patient relationship back to the way it should be--without the insurance companies trying to run everything.

I would say a good percentage--if not most--doctors today are slaves to the insurance companies who demand this ridiculous and impractical "overscheduling" of patients, which probably is at the heart of why doctors have no time to spend with their patients (my sister is a doctor, and she explained to me how insurance companies make a lot of doctors' lives a living hell).

My roommate went to one of these doctors who do a flat-year rate that excludes insurance, and he says it was just like he remembers it when he saw the doctor years ago as a child. The physician was able to spend a lot of time with him and really discuss the problem he was having.

It's a complete joke how it is with usual doctors: you spend most of the time with the nurse and perhaps 5-10 minutes (which generally seems very rushed) with the doctor. How any competent physician is suppose to come to an understanding of a patient's situation in that limited time is beyond me. Perhaps if every patient presented with a textbook illness it might be possible, but each human body is so individualized; illnesses can be rather complex and the way they present quite varied. Even the way medication works for each patient can vary a great deal.

I really hope this idea takes off. I am up to here with these meddling insurance companies trying to play doctor, telling patients what they can and can't have, telling doctors what they can and can't do. The hoops they make patients and doctors jump through to get their needed medical care is a great flaming pot ofModerator cut: rude and it couldn't come soon enough for me if all these damn parasitic insurance companies along with their thick-skulled executives waste away into the nothingness where they belong and deserve to be.

Where do you get that insurance is out of it? I think insurance is still in it completely. The concierge fee is an extra fee for patients to get the more individual service.

[Basiliximab]

Originally Posted by Charles

Where do you get that insurance is out of it? I think insurance is still in it completely. The concierge fee is an extra fee for patients to get the more individual service.

The doctor that my roommate saw charged a flat rate of some-hundred dollars a year for a number of appointments. No insurance would be accepted. After speaking with this doctor, my roommate found that the physician was exasperated of dealing with insurance companies and wanted try to practice medicine without having anything to do with them. His business was doing well at the time my roommate spoke with him.

What the o. p. posted sounds similar to this. I'm not sure if this particular doctor or physician group works with insurance companies, but I have heard of other doctors trying this route (no insurances) and it having some success so far (also, according to my sister, insurance companies requiring doctors to overbook patients is a good part of the reason for the hours-long waits at doctor offices).