Huff Post Asks The Tough Question: Is Concierge Medicine Really Worth It?

MARCH 26, 2014 – Growing up, Erin Havel’s family saw one family physician. That doctor gave her mom medical care when she was pregnant, delivered her when she was born, gave school shots, wrote prescriptions for any virus that came up, and helped her grandparents with geriatric care. This was well-rounded family care at its a finest.

However, things changed when her doctor retired. Patients were transferred to a new doctor, with his eyes on the dollar sign.

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How Much Does The Healthcare Exchange Rip Off Young Adults? They Ran The Numbers. The Results Are Grim.

Obamacare still needs more young people to sign up. This will offset the high cost of the older, and probably less healthy people who are joining Obamacare plans. Oh, but then the White House has to coerce a sufficient number of thirty-somethings to join, too. Problem is, the health plans don’t make economic sense for many of these young adults.

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Ever Wondered What’s Been Causing All These Healthcare Security Breaches? It Could Be HIPAA’s Fault.

There’s been more than 30 million individuals affected by health data security breaches since 2009. These breaches are swiftly becoming a costly expense to healthcare organizations worldwide.

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What Happens When Google And Direct Care Team Up? Patients Get Live Video Appointments.

MedLion Management, Inc. announced today that they will be using Helpouts by Google to offer telelmedicine services to its patients. This is the type of innovation we expect from a national leader in the movement to improve Direct Primary Care. Great job, MedLion.

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Direct Care Is The Blue Collar Bootstrap Solution To Our Broken Healthcare System

Yes, it’s true. More and more primary-care and family physicians are launching concierge practices for middle- and lower-income patients. It’s not an April Fools jokes. We literally saw 5 more docs enter the field just this week!

And yes, we’re limited in scope now. But we are radically reshaping how American families get their medicine.

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45% Of Physicians Say EMRs Make Care Worse And Cost Practices Money

It’s another case of hate to say we told you so. Looks like for too many doctors, their worst EMR fears have come true, proving to be expensive, a drain on staff and technically inadequate. A total of 45% of respondents to a study said that in fact, patient care is worse since implementing EMR.

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Welcome To The Broken American Healthcare System. Where Dissatisfied Docs Can’t Provide Quality Care.

According to Afshine Ash Emrani, MD, the worst news in healthcare isn’t antibiotic resistance, drug-drug interactions, hospital-acquired infections, and definitely not the alarming rate of obesity in our youth.

No, the worst news is the increasing number of dissatisfied physicians.

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Major Insurance Conglomerate To Raise Rates By Double Digits

WellPoint surprised industry experts when it announced it will likely seek “double-digit plus” rate hikes. Insurers still have two months before they must submit their 2015 rates, so WellPoint’s prediction could impact other insurers’ rate-setting plans, Bloomberg reported.

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The Evolution Of Primary Care

For decades, primary care physicians ran their offices in a “physician-centric” manner. PCPs ran their offices during convenient hours, rarely reached out to patients when they weren’t in the office and spent virtually no energy building their brand or their patient experience.

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America Spends The Most On Healthcare. Tell That To 3,900 People Who Just Lost Their Hospital Jobs.

Affected by reduced payments, hospitals in Pennsylvania cut 3,900 jobs from February 2013 to February 2014. Oh and more layoffs and budget cuts are expected, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry and The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

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