We told you about Dr. Doug’s CNN Money feature last week. Now, in a recent article, Breitbart quotes that “after five years of dealing with the red tape of health insurance companies and the high overhead for the staff [Dr. Doug] hired just to deal with paperwork, he switched to a system of charging his patients a monthly fee plus the price of an office visit or test.” We did want to point out that this line had a bit of an error. Dr. Doug charges extra for things like MRIs, prescriptions, blood panels, but NOT for office visits. But, regardless of the minor oversight, the article generated a massive conversation, with resounding support for concierge medicine.
One comment especially earned Dr. Doug’s sympathy. See below for AJMD’s story about finally hitting the wall after dealing with insurance companies.
Listen to his situation. Two hours doing minutia work just to NOT get paid by Anthem. There are many, many scatological comparisons we can make here. But we’ll save the gripe and instead remind everyone, atlas.md is coming, soon. We are building a tool to help doctors practice concierge medicine more effectively. Hopefully this small step can lead to a marathon of support for a sensible, practical alternative.
One thing that’s going to help move doctors to direct primary care is a groundswell of patient demand. That’s why we built a tool to track the growing demand for concierge medicine. Share iwantdirectcare.com with your patients, and get them voice their frustrations. When patients and doctors unite in the face of insurance despotism, good things will happen.
However, there’s another problem we’re facing in the States, declining primary care physicians. One more reason to start taking concierge medicine seriously. If doctors can find patients, and make money, and avoid headaches, they will do so. This bodes well for the health of our nation’s future.
More Reading
“Doctors Dump Health Insurance Plans, Charge Patients Less” | Breitbart