June 1, 2014
Recently, someone asked me on Twitter, “Has the change in classification of obesity as a disease affected how you treat patients presenting w/ the disease?”
The classification change in question is regarding the American Medical Association’s declaration that obesity is a disease rather than a comorbidity factor.
May 26, 2014
Some of the country’s best doctors have the worst patient satisfaction scores.
Want to know why?
Part of training to become a fee-for-service doctor is learning how to suppress your feelings. You get good at being who people want you to be, not who they need you to be.
You’re slowly transformed into something you didn’t foresee–a Stepford doctor out to please everyone with a sycophantic grin and forcibly appealing demeanor, hoping that your patient satisfaction survey will be favorable, no matter the cost.
May 21, 2014
We keep telling them, but some critics still doubt that Direct Care can save patients a tremendous amount of money each month.
Venlafaxine tablets (generic for Effexor) is a prime example.
Assuming you know about the coupon option, you can buy the generic for $17. However, if not, you’ll pay ~$150 cash.
Keep in mind that we can sell a monthly script of Venlafaxine tablets for $5.70.
May 21, 2014
Atlas.md EMR operates free from HIPAA regulation, and free from government scrutiny.
Instead patients are in the power seat to communicate as THEY see fit with their physicians.
When patients enroll, they can opt in to receive communications over non-HIPAA-compliant methods.
These non-HIPAA-compliant methods include confidential communications via SMS, email and Twitter DMs, and also general billing conducted via email.
Unless users check to allow these features, no private information will be communicated in any of these manners.
However, Atlas.md EMR will send emails to patients regarding billing, e.g. invoices, confirmation of payments, confirmation of refunds, and more.
Invoices, to the best of Atlas.md EMR’s abilities, will never contain any sensitive or compromising information.
May 20, 2014
Qliance and Atlas MD made an appearance on MainStreet, a financial blogging network. It’s worth noting that by cutting the red tape, we’ve made the “perks” of concierge medicine (24/7 access, same-day appointments, unlimited visits) affordable for a majority of Americans.
We’re glad to know they’re opining a rise in subscription-based primary care, too.
May 18, 2014
Transitioning from insurance-based care into Direct Care isn’t a walk in the park. Cutting the red tape is not necessarily about EASE.
It’s about AFFECT. Affecting patients lives, affecting our own lives as doctors and business owners. It’s about having a stake in the work we do, and being rewarded for doing it well.
Here’s an earnest email from Mary Wulfers. She’s helping her husband run his newly opened Direct Care practice.
We’re really busy. Mike has about 130 new patients and they all seem to want a physical right away, so he’s really really busy. Around 170-180 patients transferred from his old practice, and we’ve obtained and built all those charts as well. I continue to work full time at the office and then some out of necessity, which is just fine. Younger families are really starting to sign up; it’s almost like the word has just gotten out. Last Monday was quite a day, had 17 new patients sign up and our nurse was out sick that day, too.This has been a very rewarding experience in so many ways but a lot of work, too. Out [sic] new website should be online soon, can’t wait to see it. Mike is really happy about some of the new patients he’s getting, some with poor insurance who are so excited to have a good doctor for the first time. How can you beat that?
Seriously, how CAN you beat that?
May 18, 2014
Here’s a central difficulty of the Affordable Care Act: If everyone has access to health insurance, then everyone has access to all the medical care they need. But curing sickness and preventing death is costly, so why not save money and lives by making primary care doctors more affordable?
After all, it’s our business to KEEP you healthy. And keeping you healthy cuts costs in the long-run.
However, we don’t and won’t have enough primary care providers in the United States unless things change.
May 18, 2014
“It’s stressful, dirty, hard work, and the burnout rate is high,” said Tom McNulty, a 19-year-old college student who volunteers for an ambulance corps outside Rochester. He told the New York Times that he finds it fulfilling, but that he would not make it a career: “Financially, it’s not feasible.”
Turns out the healthcare industry is staffed by some of the lowest as well as highest paid professionals in any business. The average staff nurse is paid about $61,000 a year, and an emergency medical technician earns just about minimum wage, for a yearly income of $27,000, according to the Compdata analysis.
Did you know that many medics work two or three jobs just to get by?
May 15, 2014
I’m not sure if you’ve heard the parable of the tall man and the cat.
Maybe not, since I had to make it up in light of healthcare’s unending cost increase.
See in this allegorical village there was a group of citizens who were very upset with a man who lived there. This man was very, very tall, and he made all the villagers feel uneasy (they were insecure about the crowns of their heads, who knows why).
One night, a mob caravanned to the tall man’s house with tall, burning torches.
May 14, 2014
They howled ICD-10 was delayed. And they howled loud and fierce.
Apparently, the life of U.S. healthcare hangs in the throes of 68,000 diagnosis codes.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world has switched to ICD-10. But here’s a secret. The World Health Organization’s version of ICD-10 has about 16,000 codes, equivalent to ICD-9-CM.
Let’s reiterate: The rest of the world is not using ICD-10-Clinical Modification set, which has 68,000 codes.
The Canadian version of ICD-10 has about 16,000 codes, but the physicians do not use those codes for billing and reimbursement. They use a more limited code set of about 600 three-digit codes.