February 7, 2014
Inc.com claims you can find everything you need to know to start and grow your business now. They published a slideshow of 17 promising healthcare startups and we noticed some trends: fitness is big, which makes sense. If we get more people moving, we get fewer people coming in for preventative care — heart attacks, obesity, Type-II diabetes. However, we also noticed how much inspiration for entrepreneurship stemmed from red tape.
Here are some slideshow highlights:
February 5, 2014
NY1, a 24-hour cable-news television channel focusing on the five boroughs of New York City, aired a segment covering Dr. Muney’s direct care practice in New York City. AMG Medical Group charges $89/month for unlimited free visits — opening abscesses, laceration sutures — and even arranges for insurers to pay for services. It’s a little different than what we’re doing, but a great example of splitting the difference. That’s because Dr. Muney advocates wrap-around insurance coverage like us. One of his patients is so pleased with the service that he admits he’d be willing to pay the Obamacare tax penalty if he chose to forego his current catastrophic healthcare plan.
VIEW DR. MUNEY’S SEGMENT ON NY1 (Via Physician Tools)
Great news: AMG Medical Group operate offices in all five boroughs and Long Island. The practice has ~1,500 patients currently enrolled.
January 30, 2014
We’re back and a LOT has happened! Seriously, 2014 is going to be a year of paradigm shift — the status quo isn’t going to cut it if insurance premiums jump 50-60% and fee-for-service docs are being told to keep 6 months of cash on hand to protect themselves from ICD-10 payment delays. Great news, though, we’re working with large unions comprised of 10-15k employees — manufacturing unions, school district unions, others — and excited about how vital this could be in the spread of direct care. And there are more physicians cutting the red tape — A practice in Oklahoma opens April 1st; Dr. Michael in Missouri is almost ready to start operating cash-only; an office in New Mexico opens February 1st; and several more are slated for the next few months. Once this ball gets rolling, we’re convinced it’s not going to slow down.
LISTEN TO EPISODE 14 OF THE ATLAS MD PODCAST HERE
In this episode, the docs outline best practices for direct care pricing, share a surprising story of insurance intimidation, and offer insight into the effects that insurance-free medicine will have on healthcare.
January 16, 2014
If you’re using Atlas.md EMR, expect a significant boost in functionality. If you aren’t using the Practice Management/EMR software yet, sign up for a free trial here.
What’s new in Atlas.md EMR?
January 14, 2014
MDPrevent closed on Dec. 27 2013. The preventive-medical practice was co-founded in Delray Beach, Florida three years ago. It’s premise was that patients would be better off if doctors focused on preventing disease instead of simply treating it. They ran into problems, though, and one of them was red tape. They claim that ultimately the three major healthcare industry players — providers, payers, and patients—all shared some responsibility for their failure, though.
Their experience with bureaucracy was costly. For every dollar they collected, their expenses were three times as much! Their vision was altruistic, and they’d assembled a team that included a health psychologist, registered dietitian, exercise physiologist, yoga instructor, health educator, and nurse practitioners. They designed a custom facility that included a teaching kitchen, a gym, and classrooms.
What turned out to be a huge mistake though was basing their business plan on insurance reimbursement rather than cash-only payments. They lost serious money, around $2 million in personal capital. When they saw how expensive operating was, they started cutting costs, trimming staff down to a health psychologist, a registered dietitian, and the founding doctor, who writes, “Medicare reimbursement we received for our services still could not cover our costs. I even abandoned the offices we had built-out and moved to less expensive quarters we shared with an internist. It still made no difference.” He adds, “Most of the third-party insurance companies in the area did not cover our services. Medicare was the exception, but reimbursement was insufficient to cover our costs.”
January 14, 2014
The Washington Examiner played Obamacare watchdogs recently and came back with some shocking figures. You know we’re not insurance people per se, but we are free market enthusiasts. And to be clear, these numbers might be a little misleading (no one in support of Obamacare was willing to provide data to the Examiner). That said, scroll down and check out these infographics comparing Obamacare and Walmart’s health plans.
Some highlights: Walmart employees in Chicago can find way more options for way less cash. And plans/deductibles nationwide are far cheaper for Walmart employees. Plans granting access to prestigious hospitals like the Mayo Clinic are even included. And some plans offer up to $1,000 cash for flex-spending, perfect for a family to enroll in a direct care clinic.
January 14, 2014
Mason Reiner, CEO & Co-founder of R-Health, a direct care startup in Philadelphia
Mason Reiner and Dr. Randy Robinson co-founded R-Health back in October 2013. The startup charges an Atlas MD-style monthly membership fee that grants access to see primary care doc with no co-pay or deductible. Individuals, employers, unions and small businesses are all eligible to participate.
Michael Hinkelman of Philly.com talked to Reiner recently.
January 13, 2014
Happy New Year! The direct care duo starts 2014 with good news and exciting updates. We’re happy to report that we’ve been consulted by Kansas University; in the near future, more students will be getting a glimpse into the world of insurance-free medicine through their curriculum. International pins were placed on the I Want Direct Care map (including clinics and patients in the U.K., Vietnam, Argentina, and more). And a humblebrag warning: we were interviewed by Harvard Business Review, so keep an eye out for that.
January 13, 2014
Quartz reports that there’s a new industry on the boom — phlebotomy i.e. the art of drawing blood. Phlebotomists, the medical technicians who handle transfusions, tests and donations, were added this year (for the first time) to the U.S. Department of Labor’s occupational handbook. Even though there’s only a small number in total, there is an above-average growth rate. It’s indicative of a trend in medical specialization: Supposedly, the 10 occupations expected to create the most new jobs between 2012 and 2022 include personal care aides, registered nurses, home health aides, and nursing assistants; healthcare workers will make up one-third of all new employment in that time period.
There’s a growing demand for healthcare in the U.S. — an aging population and the classic patient-mill-mentality where we “cut costs” by increasing doctor efficiency (good luck with that). As expected, more staff is needed so docs can focus on diagnosis and treatment. This is an expected externality of a flawed healthcare system that burdens docs with regulation and then demands they see exorbitant numbers of patients just to keep their doors open.
And here’s one more reality worth noting: Is phlebotomy a job we’d highly recommend? Probably not. Quartz writes, “All those people rushing into phlebotomy can expect a median wage of only $29,730.” That’s practically poverty. We’d rather see more primary care docs choose direct care, and draw blood themselves. You might say we’re unsympathetic, but that’s not true. We want those theoretical phlebotomists to learn skills and contribute to society. We’d just like to see a society where docs get more done without all the red tape, and students learn something else, something that bodes better for their wellbeing, and isn’t the result of a flawed healthcare system demanding their work in the first place.
Seriously, we don’t want to be totally negative, but why would doctors need more help with phlebotomist? Probably because they’re dealing with bureaucratically-induced headaches.
January 10, 2014
MedCrunch is a new kind of online magazine covering health, medicine, entrepreneurship and technology. It’s coming from a good place, focusing on new trends and the challenge of being a physician. They listed a few innovative trends and people to watch for in 2014 and we made the top of the list! We’re not going to complain when MedCrunch writes, “… Atlas MD recently finished their new electronic medical record. Mobile friendly and sleek with iPhone like usability, it is likely a dream come true to doctors everywhere dealing with their clunky medical record counterparts, or worse yet, paper.”
Thank you for the kind words, MedCrunch.