The state of Oregon has paid software giant Oracle over $100 million to build a healthcare exchange site. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. And now it appears that Oregon is stuck with Oracle because they can’t hire another firm to finish the job. This is case and point of an old-school IT provider lagging behind the current trends in building massive web operations i.e. the open source approach used on mega-scale websites like Google and Facebook.
March 10, 2014
March 10, 2014
Vote For Atlas MD As The Most Influential Cash-Only Clinic
Concierge Medicine Today is asking their readers ‘What are the most influential “brand names” and “people” in the concierge medicine and direct healthcare marketplace? We earned their nod amongst an impressive list of insurance-free clinics/physicians. Results will be revealed mid-March, so if you have time, vote for us! Atlas MD is primary care fit for a CEO — free procedures, unlimited office and tech visits, discounted labs and prescriptions — at a price fit for all of us. Thanks for your support!
March 8, 2014
Cut The Red Tape: Dr. Ciampi — Portland, Maine
In South Portland, Maine, Dr. Michael Ciampi took a step last spring that Bangor Daily News said some physicians would describe as radical (not us, though). He reclaimed his practice from the Mercy health system because he found that patient care was too impersonal. Then he stopped accepting insurance and Medicaid so that he could work more directly with his patients. Earlier in 2013, Ciampi sent a letter to his patients informing them that he would no longer accept any kind of health coverage, both private and government-sponsored. Given that he was now asking patients to pay for his services out of pocket, he posted his prices on the practice’s website.
March 7, 2014
Direct Care Is Actually Affordable. Direct Care Is Actually Care. Something The ACA Wishes.
When Blue Shield of California was designing the new health plans it would offer individuals under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the insurer made a simple request to doctors and hospital in its network — lower your prices or get left behind. The insurer asked providers to accept reimbursement rates as much as 30 percent lower than what Blue Shield previously paid through plans sold on the individual market. Keep in mind that billing through a third-party-payer is about to multiply tenfold in complexity (from ~15,000 to +155,000 billing codes with ICD-10), meaning that getting paid will require more work for fee-for-service docs. In fact, providers are attending training seminars, paid for out of pocket, to learn how to deal with this billing beast.
Some providers got on board with Blue Shield, but not all of them.
March 7, 2014
Direct Care Is So Good You Will Cry. Stream ATLAS MD PODCAST #15…
Thank you for Tweeting us your direct care questions. We went through and answered them one by one in our newest podcast. Someone asked about how many patients we’re seeing. Great question! We’re proud to say that we’re seeing about 1,500 patients in total now, and that Dr. Palomino is seeing ~415 patients after entering Atlas MD last May.
March 6, 2014
Direct Care Is Business. And Its Business Is Serving Patients.
Last year, the New York Times wrote about Orlene Paxson, a 33-year-old, stay-at-home mom. Living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, she was unable to find an obstetrician that she liked who would accept her insurance. A lot of them weren’t accepting new patients, and one doctor who came highly recommended didn’t return her call for five days and didn’t want to see her until 12 weeks into the pregnancy. This was Mrs. Paxson’s first time being pregnant. She didn’t want to wait. Her policy didn’t cover any out-of-network services, but she and her husband went the cash-only route and paid the entire fee themselves — $13,000.
March 6, 2014
We Think We Know The Answer… But How Has Your Insurance-Free Medical Experience Been?
At the end of their recent article about cash-only medicine, The New York Times asks, “With all the changes in health care and insurance, has your doctor stopped accepting insurance? If so, what has been your experience — both with the care and with your insurer? The article title is warily slanted — “Dealing with Doctors Who Only Accept Cash” — but the writer shared their own wonderful story about a cash-only doctor who drove an hour and a half to successfully take care of a sick baby.
March 6, 2014
You’re Paying That Much For Your Phone? You Can Get A Personal Physician For The Same Price.
Image provided by aei-ideas.org
Epiphany Healthcare in North Port, FL, is another member of our burgeoning direct care movement. American Enterprise Institute wrote about their model and included the price comparison table above. Two obvious points worth mentioning — ACA Bronze coverage DOES NOT do much for patients and still costs a serious amount of money. It might feel safe because it includes catastrophic coverage… But here at Atlas MD in Kansas, we’ve helped patients get wrap-around coverage with a $5,000 deductible for less than $150/mo… Meaning that with direct care and wrap-around coverage combined, we’re giving you more care, and security, for potentially the same price as a Bronze ACA plan.
March 5, 2014
Flaming Jet Skis, Spacecraft Crashes, Suicide By Jellyfish… And The Attack Of ICD-10
Seriously, ICD-10 billing codes are coming. Unless you untangle yourself from the red tape of bureaucratically controlled healthcare, you are going to need to adjust to this staggering reform. The common way to deal with corporatocratic upgrades is with the classic seminar — and ICD-10 is no different. Thankfully, The Weekly Standard sent a writer to cover one such seminar… Attendees paid between $585 and $985 for a two-day “boot camp” taught by Annie Boynton, with credentials “longer than the alphabet… BS, RHIT, CPCO, CCS…” Students took their seats and found a thin spiral book—the “ICD-10-CD General Code Set Manual” for 2014—and a six-pound “ICD-10 Complete Draft Code Set” that was as thick as a phone book…
March 5, 2014
We Love Seeing Direct Care In The Local News. But We Never Said, “No More Insurance.”
Direct care made a local news segment in Kansas City. But Dr. Troy Burns wasn’t too happy with the title of the online article that accompanied it. It reads, “Doctor’s new orders: No more health insurance.” Thank you, Fox News, for taking notice of our model of care — one that’s affordable, practical, and is making patients and doctors happy. However, we have to point out that insurance is DEFINITELY necessary in the event of trauma or catastrophe.