April 23, 2013
Doctors considering transitioning to a concierge business model, take note: deductibles are on the rise. Here are the grim findings from a study conducted by Athenehealth between 2009 and 2011:
Deductibles as a percentage of contracted rate have risen by 47% in the Northeast and by 20% in the rest of the country.
April 22, 2013
In case you missed it, Harvard Business Review (HBR) published a new article about “Patient-Centered Care.”
It’s concerning to concierge medicine, though, mostly since the three writers NEVER MENTION OUR FIELD AT ALL. Brian Powers, Amol S. Navathe and Sachin H. Jain do encourage the medical field at large to take note of the service industry, though. Their points are valid, and worth a read. Although they sound faintly reminiscent of a “rally-the-troops” speech that a CEO gives his employees at the beginning of the fiscal year. It’s impassioned, and sounds well-versed, but it’s not always clear what will ACTUALLY CHANGE.
April 22, 2013
Angela Dunn of HL7 (Health) Standards concluded her piece about technology and concierge medicine today.
She relied on Dr. Josh’s expertise and enthusiasm to prove her point. Concierge doctors are “using technology and social media as ‘tools’ to forge more human, more connected relationships with patients.”
April 19, 2013
Life Hacker offers help for abbreviating those long emails that no one’s reading. You might be a master of the inbox, but if you’re finding yourself writing novels, take a look at the pointers below.
April 19, 2013
Angela Dunn cited Dr. Josh and AtlasMD’s affordability in yesterday’s post on HL7 (Health) Standards’ blog. It’s the first in a two-part piece called “Technology Driving New Models for Concierge Medicine and Direct Primary Care.”
Check out her summary of concierge medicine’s key benefits. It’s an effective case for doctors who want to practice grassroots primary care. She sums up the movement saying that it aims to “minimize the need for insurance, except for emergency and catastrophic care, and… eliminate or minimize the high administrative costs for a practice.”
April 18, 2013
The Concierge Medicine Research Collective conducted a three year study and found some promising results.
Most encouraging was news that a third of the households seeing concierge doctors made less than $100,000/yr. An effective healthcare reform needs to be affordable to a majority of Americans. More practices opening up and better technology helping doctors to run their practices all serve to drive the cost of care down. Concierge doctors win. Patients win. Even insurance can win, by paying out fewer settlements. That’s the beauty of a free market.
The survey also suggested that concierge doctors have been able to make steady incomes while expanding their services to more Americans. You can check out the full press release here. It’s worth a glance.
April 17, 2013
Nicholas Genes is the ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. He posted a great piece about the problems facing EMR adoption—government regulation, concerns about efficiency, etc.
He finishes on a high note: We’re savvy shoppers and we demand a good product before we buy it.
His thought makes a double entendre, though. Of course, doctors are savvy shoppers who want to buy a helpful software product. But it’s a savvy nation of healthcare shoppers who increase the demand for that software.
Yes, savvy shoppers are one free market win. But the second win will be concierge medicine operating tech-savvy, too.
Read Nicholas’ complete article here.
Nicholas Genes // Courtesy of thinkwritepublish.org
April 11, 2013
The Topeka Capital-Journal posted a story yesterday saying that David Powell and Beverly Gossage praised Kansas’ Legislature for passing of a bill that will open the state insurance market to stripped-down health plans.
Both candidates are vying to replace Sandy Praeger in 2014. According to them both, “Mandate Lite” policies will combat the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — otherwise known as Obamacare.
Ironically, the law wasn’t even written to battle Obamacare. According to Powell, a Republican who helped draft it, the idea originated much earlier. He said, “I wrote this law in 2008 based on my concern that the direction our health insurance rates were going (up) in Kansas would hurt our citizens and businesses.”
Supporters believe this new Kansas law will make insurance more affordable, especially for young, healthy Kansans. It will allow them to opt out of coverage for things like diabetes care, allergy treatments, prostate screenings and mental services. These services are known culprits of high-cost insurance premiums.
Check out the complete article at cjonline.com.
April 9, 2013
Facebook Chat is one of a multitude of online chat platforms. It allows quick instantaneous communication with a limitless number of people. More than you’ll likely ever want to talk to at once. Besides being embedded within one of the most highly trafficked websites on the planet, it has a key advantage: a certain degree of privacy.
As a doctor, you’ll of course want to check with state regulation to make sure Facebook Chat is compliant with standards. Here at AtlasMD, based in Kansas, we are able to Facebook chat with patients who sign a confidentiality agreement. A key advantage to this forum is that the messages are only able to be accessed by a sole user, and can be deleted at will.
First, make sure you are familiar with what Facebook Chat is and how to use it. Check out Facebook Chat Basics. The How To Use Facebook Chat section is all you need to get going. It’s easy to use. If you want, get a friend or family member to “chat” with you to try it out.
April 9, 2013
Concierge medicine opens up new opportunities to enhance patient-doctor relationships through social media. But doctors need to know how to use the tools to make the most of them. And they need to know how to do so responsibly. This first post will go over the basics. Keep this link handy, though, since links to more specific best practices will be added below over time.
Please be advised, do not start connecting with patients right away. At least not yet. First things first, get your head around social media. Then determine how you can use these tools to positively reinforce your relationship with the Web at large, as well as colleagues and patients.
If you’re already feeling comfortable with using Facebook and Twitter as a personal user, check out the growing list of topics covering Social Media Best Practices For Medical Professionals. Otherwise keep going for a breakdown of what Facebook and Twitter are useful for.