Check out this YouTube video of Dr. Lee Gross, MD, a family physician practicing in Florida. He presents Epiphany Health, his direct primary care plan, to medical students attending the AMSA national conference on October 12, 2013 at Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine. His talk was sponsored by the Benjamin Rush Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the doctor-patient relationship and preserving freedom of choice in medicine.
Just a heads up, it’s a long video, clocking in around 35 minutes. To help you out, we highlighted a few key segments.
Why is healthcare so expensive? (3:35) — Dr. Gross insists it’s the stuff outside the doctor’s office that makes it expensive. He goes on to explain the conundrum of rising employee insurance policies (around $1,000 / month / employee) lending itself to a situation where paying one direct care doctor to treat everyone, and buying everyone a catastrophic policy costs far less.
Why is insurance so expensive? (9:20) — For one, health insurance has become health maintenance. Dr. Gross’ explanation is similar to ours: he asks the audience to picture home owner’s insurance, and imagine if you needed an insurance agent to help you switch out a light bulb. It’s another great allegory for the absurdly mired system we’re caught in, where subscribers pay into plans that are supposed to do so much that they make seeing a family doctor cost-prohibitive.
How much does Epiphany Health save uninsured patients? (14:35) In the case of someone with severe stomach pain, about $18,000.
How much could Epiphany Health save the nation? (21:07) Dr. Gross explains how if every new subscriber to Obamacare signed up for Epiphany, the nation could save $1.2 TRILLION. Of course, a politician would be reluctant to make this claim, but if enough doctors open clinics like Dr. Gross and ourselves, IT WILL HAPPEN.
And if you watch all the way through, Dr. Gross opens up the floor to questions. Turns out someone in the audience was familiar with Atlas MD and brought up the fact that we’re able to offer MAJOR SAVINGS on prescriptions. Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully people will be talking about our new Atlas.md EMR software next. It’s another way we’re trying to revolutionize direct primary care, by bringing down the cost and preserving the patient-doctor relationship.
We enjoy practicing medicine, and we firmly believe that’s why doctors took, and continue to take, the Hippocratic Oath. We’re blessed to be part of a generation of doctors fighting to cut the red tape. Kudos to Dr. Gross for his direct care success in Florida!