Posted by: AtlasMD

January 9, 2014

Is The Answer To The Doctor Shortage In Our Pocket?

Is The Answer To The Doctor Shortage In Our Pocket?

BlueStar, a prescription-only smartphone app, is hitting the market this year. They’re banking on consumers who want to get medical advice directly from their phone. According to a Quartz article, the app was created by app-maker WellDoc and is the first to require a doctor’s prescription. Anyone can download the app but a prescription code provided by a pharmacy is required to use it. The cost varies by prescription, but is predicted to go much higher than $100 per month.

Since 2010 the app has been helping people with type 2 diabetes, by nudging them to check their blood sugar levels, reiterating tactics to moderate levels, and offering periodic advice. For instance, it might remind patients when to eat or commend them for tracking their glucose levels routinely.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

January 3, 2014

You Won’t Believe This Reddit Tape

ABC reported on a recent Reddit post of a $55,000 appendectomy bill. Yes, 55 THOUSAND dollars. Although the 20-year-old man in question got over the pain of his appendix removal, his hospital bill probably won’t be feeling better anytime soon. Fortunately, the patient was insured, so he only had to pay $11,119.23 of the outstanding bill. The shocked man of course took to the best place on earth to document all things ridiculous.

“I never truly understood how much health care in the U.S. costs until I got appendicitis in October,” he wrote on Reddit. “I’m a 20-year-old guy. Thought other people should see this to get a real idea of how much an unpreventable illness costs in the U.S.” The recovery room cost $7,501.00, which surprised the man because he spent only two hours in there. The actual surgery cost $16,277.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

January 2, 2014

Study Suggests More Insurance, More ER Visits

Sabrina Tavernise writes in The New York Times about a new study that flips a steadfast assumption on its head. At first glance, you’d think that giving people more access to Medicaid would lower the frequency of ER visits. However, a study conducted in Oregon has proven the exact opposite.

The study was published in the journal Science. It compared two groups of people — a 2008 lottery randomly selected thousands of low-income people in the Portland area and provided them Medicaid coverage; a second group entered the lottery but received no insurance. Here’s the shocker. “Those who gained coverage made 40 percent more visits to the emergency room than their uninsured counterparts,” writes The Times. The pattern was strong, holding true across most demographics, times of day, and types of visits. These even included conditions that we could have treated here in our Atlas MD office.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 26, 2013

This Hurts. New ACA Fees Coming 2014.

“Here comes the ObamaCare tax bill,” writes Fox News. Unfortunately, most insurers aren’t being forthcoming about the Obamacare taxes that are to be added on to premiums. Nope. Instead these “hidden fees” will be discretely passed on to customers.

One insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, wasn’t hush hush about it, though. They laid out the taxes on customer bills, using a separate line item for “Affordable Care Act Fees and Taxes.” Fox News lists out all the new taxes here. Ouch. You know, when we consider our push for more direct care nationwide, it’s hard not to notice that every new patient we enroll, who opts for lower monthly insurance payments using a wrap-around plan, is actually taking money away from the Federal government. Considering all this additional revenue they plan on bringing in from these healthcare taxes, isn’t this just another power ploy? And not to harp, but where’s the actual care in any of this dialogue?

Nowhere. Which is one of the biggest problems we have with it. It doesn’t address where healthcare is failing. Instead, it becomes a bureaucratic argument over dollars and line items, not patients and doctors having healthy, meaningful interactions.

READ ABOUT NEW OBAMACARE TAXES COMING 2014

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 23, 2013

Is The ACA Deadline Update A Publicity Stunt?

NPR reports that the administration has granted a one-day extension on Obamacare sign-ups. According to NPR, “The deadline that had been midnight on Dec. 23 has been pushed to Christmas Eve at midnight.” So why the update? Apparently the government realized that there were issues with time zones, and that more time should be allotted to compensate.

fry

It’s a good thing the federal government isn’t an actual person. We’d be concerned that their head is attached to their shoulders.

READ MORE ABOUT OBAMACARE DEADLINE UPDATE HERE

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 20, 2013

Wichita Eagle Spreads Direct Care Cheer

Thanks to reporter Kelsey Ryan who shared a touching Atlas MD story in her recent report on our model of care. She focused on one of our patients, Michael Scheidt, who’s been enrolled in our practice since around the time we opened up. His wife was extremely sick and practically bedridden when he signed them both up for Atlas MD care. Dr. Josh was able to drive to their home and check up on her, which helped them tremendously. Even after the passing of his wife, Scheidt told the Wichita paper that he keeps coming in to see us because it’s “just so darn cost effective.” This was a real tearjerker. Thanks for your kind words, Michael.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 19, 2013

And The Red Tape Thickens… HHS Now Demands Free Coverage For Those Affected By ACA

Do you have even an inkling of support for free market policies? A modicum of belief in free enterprise? Here’s a stop-whatever-you’re-doing article from Forbes writer Avik Roy. He reports on disheartening news in light of recent ACA failures.

From Forbes.com > Government Takeover: White House Forces Obamacare Insurers To Cover Unpaid Patients At A Loss

Roy opens with a rally cry, saying, “Of all of the last-minute delays, website bungles, and Presidential whims that have marred the roll-out of Obamacare’s subsidized insurance exchanges, what happened on Thursday, December 12 will stand as one of the most lawless acts yet committed by this administration.” The White House—who’s already canceled Americans’ old health plans, and has botched the system for enrolling people in new ones—is well aware that millions of Americans are going to enter the new year without health coverage. Yet instead of actually fixing anything, they have a new solution. They are going to to try to retroactively force insurers to hand out free health care—even at a potential loss—to those people uninsured through the White House-induced fiasco. Roy asks, “If Obamacare wasn’t a government takeover of the health insurance industry, then what is it now?”

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 16, 2013

The Doctor Will See You All Now

We thought Time was kidding when they wrote about something called “shared medical appointments, or group visits.” But no, evidently this group therapy approach to medical care is gaining popularity. Could it be a more satisfying way to see your doctor? It’s too early to tell, but either way, we’re excited here at Atlas MD. Security issues aside, we’re behind any movement that puts the patients in the driver seat. As is the case here when we Tweet with clients, the patients have to provide authorization and be comfortable talking about themselves in front of other people.

You might be thinking, this is ludicrous. But when it comes to diabetics, it makes perfect sense. Taking care of that condition is a full-time job, and as much as family, friends, and even docs, can empathize, there’s no replacement for people who’ve gone through the same ordeal you have.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 14, 2013

ACA Cancels New York Creatives’ Coverage

Anemona Hartocollis wrote in The New York Times, “Many in New York’s professional and cultural elite have long supported President Obama’s health care plan. But now, to their surprise, thousands of writers, opera singers, music teachers, photographers, doctors, lawyers and others are learning that their health insurance plans are being canceled and they may have to pay more to get comparable coverage, if they can find it.”

Touche. Get a lot of people to vote for something by promising universal benefits for all. Then fail to benefit not only the people you promised to help, but also the law’s supporters. This seems like solid politics.

New York developed an unusual, informal health insurance system where independent practitioners were able to get lower insurance rates through group plans. These were typically set up by their professional associations or chambers of commerce. These people were able to avoid the sky-high rates in New York’s individual insurance market, (historically among the most expensive in the country).

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Direct Care Inspires New Generation Of Physician

Brian Gans is seeing family medicine in a new light. He shared his passion for direct primary care in a new blog post that’s making the rounds in our online community. This first sentence is simply prophetic. Brian writes, “When I first entered medical school, I was very attracted to family medicine as a discipline, but I wasn’t attracted to practicing in a model that limited me to less than 15 minutes of face time per patient…”

Seriously, how can we expect our nation’s current, and widening, doctor shortage to be abated when students are confronted with the grim reality of hamster wheel medicine? And don’t forget the red tape. It’s sticky, and will require the majority of med student’s future to offset. Brian, like many students, is aware that fee-for-service medicine requires 45 minutes of paperwork to get reimbursed for every 15 minutes of work. There’s little to no room for innovation in this type of environment.

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