We’ve got the direct care ball rolling and the movement’s definitely gaining momentum. Yes, it’s considered an alternative within our insurance-based, government-controlled healthcare system. But it’s getting attention from mainstream national media, and that’s great news! Here’s Dr. Doug on a segment of Fox’s Huckabee, hosted by Governor Mike Huckabee.
Featured alongside Dr. Doug are Drs. Marcy Zwelling and Michael Ciampi. Together they discuss the reality of privacy invasion caused by billing codes, Meaningful Use (or fail, depending on how you look at it) where doctors work for the machine instead of the patient in order to get paid, and the fact that doctors can still make a healthy salary without charging patients hundreds of dollars for each visit. Check out the second segment below.
Great job, Dr. Doug, on taking the opportunity to explain that our current doctor shortage might be the result of physicians spending 22% of their time doing non-patient related tasks, mostly insurance billing. If multiplied across the entire labor force of primary care doctors, this translates to 165,000 full-time doctors, working solely on getting paid. Direct care gets doctors working efficiently, and makes them happier overall. Patients get one-on-one care and can see their doctors promptly. Most importantly, this point drives home the fact that direct care is not the problem; it’s actually an answer to the falling number of primary care physicians.
Though there’s still the question of insurance. We can’t live without it, so how do we rectify it. The answer is customizable insurance plans. In fact, one Wichita family saved $1,000/month using a custom-designed, high-deductible insurance plan offered from a local company. In a similar vein, one company we added to our roster, with fifty employees, got back $250,000 utilizing an ERISA plan for their staff. And no, that’s not a typo, we meant a quarter of a million dollars in savings, substantial for any business, especially a small one taking a chance on our vision of improved primary care.
Yes, there are powerful numbers to back our enthusiasm. But what do you think? Will Americans treat direct care as a regular healthcare method, not just a circumventing, radical alternative? We think so, and we also believe there’s more than a few patients and doctors who already consider it a viable option. That’s why we started a campaign called I Want Direct Care, to make sure their voices are heard.