Friday, August 16, 2013
Direct Primary Care Summit: Bending the Cost Curve
Healthcare costs are (shamelessly) way beyond affordable by the average American Family. How do we move toward financial reality in healthcare?
Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a good start. It is a business model that allows patients to pay their Family Physician directly. It allows employers to pay Family Physicians directly. It saves money.
It may even allow governments to pay Family Physicians directly someday, but both the government and the insurance companies are failing as stewards of healthcare dollars and processes.
Hundreds of Family Physicians, averaging twenty years or more in practice, have now moved into Direct Primary Care practices and more are on the way. The movement is seeing a crescendo of activity as the transformation of healthcare crushes physician morale and shows no potential for a course correction via an increased primary care workforce.
Direct Primary Care is affordable primary care for most families. Getting Family Physicians out of insurance plans is a critical element. Getting health care from someone not employed by "The Beast" (Medical Industrial Complex) is another good idea.
To further advance DPC, a Direct Primary Care Summit for primary care physicians, employers, health care providers, interested medical students and residents is coming to St. Louis October 11-12 at the Airport Marriott. Speakers such as Garrison Bliss, MD and Dave Chase, leaders in DPC will deliver the nuts and bolts of DPC for both new and veteran DPC fans and practitioners.
Direct Primary Care Summit
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Hey Doc...I like your idea. DPC sounds like you have something going for us. What is the cost in case I need it soon> mas
ReplyDeleteOne of the "leaders" in the direct pay (also called how to maximize your income) movement Qliance as been around for almost 5 years and still only has about 6,000 patients and for those in their 50's costs over 1000 a year..
ReplyDeleteHard to fathom who can afford that when the average income is only 42,000 a year.
There is also the ethical question of cutting practice panels down from the typical 2000 to 600 or so. I also wonder if we should require any docs who refuse to take medicare and medicaid patients to pay the US taxpayer back for the cost of their education
(CMS pays for almost all residency and internship in the US at a cost of about 100k a year for the 4 to 11 years of their training) If that was a mortgage it would be over 3000 a month for 30 years.
Direct pay is hardly the solution for our health care system it is simply a way for family practice docs to increase their incomes.