Posted by: AtlasMD

December 12, 2013

ACA Homogeneity — Direct Primary Care Doc Closes Up Shop In Wisconsin

We’re disheartened to share the news that Dr. Schupp closed his Madison, WI-direct primary care facility last month. He told the DPC Journal Editor, Michael Tetreault, “I wanted to try something different [entrepreneurial] and had over 100 patients were interested in the first two-months of startup. I was able to cover expenses with just 40 patients.”

Ouch. It’s incredible to hear that Dr. Schupp managed to break even with just 40 patients enrolled. Schupp continued to tell Tetreault, though, that several factors determined his decision to discontinue operation… one of which included the uncertainty of prospective patients related to the Affordable Care Act.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 11, 2013

NPR Visits ACA Prison Glitch. Gets Touche.

In the mood for some high brow hahas? Then you’ll want to read NPR’s “prison glitch” coverage. Have you experienced this malfunction yet? Wait, that would mean you were actually signing up on the Federal insurance exchange (jk). Either way, according to NPR, the Obama administration says it has patched hundreds of software bugs infecting the government’s health insurance website.

What’s the “prison glitch”? We’re glad you asked. Evidently, Martha Freeman of Pennsylvania encountered the bug while signing up for coverage for herself and her adult children. The insurance website asked for documentation of the children’s incarceration status. It’s worth noting that her kids have never been to prison.

Freeman figured she was “stuck in solitary,” says NPR, until she called a toll-free help line and found out she wasn’t alone. Others have been experiencing this bug, too.

We do have to hand it to NPR. Their tone is hilarious. “Stuck in solitary” is only the first of prison-themed puns in the article.

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 11, 2013

Student Discusses Atlas MD, Capitalism And The Free Market In Research Paper

We’re blessed to have been the thesis of Sam Jordan’s academic paper, “Medicine Shrugged.” Originally from Salina, Kansas, she’s now a freshman at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and is majoring in Economics. She included email correspondences with Dr. Josh as part of her sources to build a case for free market medicine. Texts from Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan and other intellectuals were cited alongside our personal experience.

Thanks to Sam, for letting us share her work with our supporters. We have to admit, we blushed when she compared us to Aluminum Company of America. ALCOA is known for its shining example of profit-maximization and price-minimization in Greenspan’s paper, “Trust.” It serves as a concise way of understanding our mission to cut the red tape. And yes, it’s true: we’re motivated to offer the best healthcare while making the most money possible. Sam had no hesitation in addressing that.

We’ve included the complete work below. Take a look. And if you’re interested in a digital copy of Sam’s paper, send us a line at hello[at]atlas.md …

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 10, 2013

Direct Care Has A Brand New Face In Philadelphia

R Health in Philly launched their version of direct care back in August. Mason Reiner, the founder and CEO of the bootstrapped healthcare startup, says “[I saw] an opportunity to help consumers cut down on healthcare costs through more meaningful patient interactions and 24-hour access through telehealth.”

Welcome to the “wild” side of primary care, R Health. Wild if only because we’re willing to take big risks to earn big rewards. Rewards like quality relationships with our patients, and in our case even tweets like this:

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 8, 2013

More Cash Only News Coverage

8 News NOW

So CBS News in Las Vegas aired a segment about MedLion a few weeks ago. You’ve probably heard us mention Dr Samir Qamar’s operation. He was originally a high-end concierge medical doctor, offering private, 24/7 service for the elite Pebble Beach Golf Resort. He charged his patients as much as $30,000 a month.

No worries, he is charging much less now. 70 bucks a month and a $10 copay. His model doesn’t include the house calls we do, and it is a little more expensive than what we’re offering here. That said, it takes all kinds to bring direct care and cash-only medicine to life. Every time a news segment’s telling our side of the healthcare story, we’ll call it a win. Part of us might want to argue with MedLion, “Oh, you’re charging too much.” But that’s petty. In fact, that type of pettiness would be great. Seriously, that dialogue will only happen when direct care goes mainstream. American healthcare would look a lot different then. We’d welcome a new set of problems to overcome, new battles to win. At least we’d have made it past today’s impasse, where insurance dictates patient care, and not the other way around.

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 8, 2013

The Prism Vision Of Direct Care

We came across a contributed post on Dr. James Diamond’s blog (Diamond is founder/CEO of Diamond Luxury Healthcare, a concierge medical network). The post is called “Is Concierge Medicine The Correct Choice For You?” and was submitted by contributor Paul Hsieh, MD. You’re well aware that our branch of concierge medicine, direct care, is carving out a niche where families, individuals, and businesses can get quality care for the most affordable rate possible. Although our society is made of many types of cars, some are more expensive than others, though. So it makes sense that our movement would see cost stratification.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 6, 2013

Everybody Laissez Faire Tonight; New Book Reveals Intimate Details About Ayn Rand’s Life

Doug French curates and reviews books for Laissez Faire Books and also blogs at Libertarian Standard. He mentioned us recently in a review of Nathaniel Branden’s book Judgment Day: My Years With Ayn Rand. He came right out with a reference to the age of Obamacare, saying, “… The writings of Ayn Rand are inspiring some doctors to push back. A small, but growing group of doctors want their patients to pay cash. That’s right, cash. Their own cash.” Then he went on to mention our practice. We’re flattered to have Atlas MD’s name beside an inspirational figure like Rand. Her philosophy guided us to where we are today, practicing medicine, changing people’s lives, and changing the way other doctor’s can change their patients’ lives.

French even says that our practice “sounds like Rand’s free-market Shangri-La — Galt’s Gulch.” Gulp. That’s a sweeping vision to live up to. Although we’re in good company. French reminds us in his review that Ayn Rand has had tremendous influence on the likes of other innovative entrepreneurs and business leaders: BB&T’s John Allison, Whole Foods’ John Mackey, and Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales to name a few. And we did release direct care’s first EMR, so we’ll admit that we’re ambitious. But our battle for common sense is ongoing.

ORDER JUDGEMENT DAY: MY LIFE WITH AYN RAND ON LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 5, 2013

Throwback Thursday_Cash Only Medicine

So we use the Internet here at Atlas MD. It’s part of our daily routine to Tweet with patients (if they choose) about ailments, conditions, and the like. We also use our web-based Atlas.md EMR to view patient records and do just about anything else that needs doing here at the office.

And since we’re online all the time, we learned about this whole Throwback Thursday thing (aka #tbt). So here’s one for you. Check out this article from 2004, almost ten years old now. It’s about one of the first cash-only primary care physicians, Dr. Vern Cherewatenko, and a patient named Chuck O’Brien. Back then, Dr. Vern charged patients $50 to come in and get a physical. It was that simple.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 5, 2013

More Obamacare Rabble Rousing? How About We Just Do Healthcare Ourselves?

When it comes to Obamacare, we’re not even sure there is a simple bipartisan debate. CNBC reported last week about the inherent security shortcomings of Obamacare. According to cybersecurity expert David Kennedy on CNBC last Monday, “It could take a year to secure the risk of ‘high exposures’ of personal information on the federal Obamacare online exchange.”

Kennedy added, “When you develop a website, you develop it with security in mind. And it doesn’t appear to have happened this time.” The so-called “white hat” hacker tests online security by breaching websites. He testified on Capitol Hill about the flaws of HealthCare.gov the week prior. Maybe it’s reassuring then that few could actually sign up on the federal portals.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

December 4, 2013

This Is The Best Advertisement For Direct Care (And We Didn’t Even Come Up With It)

Stop what you’re doing and read this article from The New York Times. In a piece called “As Hospital Prices Soar, a Stitch Tops $500” writer Elisabeth Rosenthal relays multiple stories of outrageous hospital charges. California Pacific Medical Center’s tidy emergency room treated Deepika Singh who had cut her knee at a barbecue and a toddler named Orla Roche who had sliced open her forehead on a coffee table. Here’s what their bills looked like: Ms. Singh’s three stitches were billed for $2,229.11; Orla’s forehead was sealed with a dab of skin glue that cost $1,696.

And great job, investigative journalists, researchers, everyone who’s fed up with the arbitrary nature of pricing. According to government statistics hospital charges represent about a third of the $2.7 trillion annual United States health care bill, the biggest single segment. These charges are the largest driver of medical inflation, too, a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found.

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