Straight From A DPC Physician’s Mouth: “I’m A Happy Doctor Again!”

Mary Wulfers raised a serious question after reading about ObamaCare Exchange enrollees who can’t find doctors.

She asks, Who wants to see a doctor who is being forced to treat them?

Her husband is a primary care physician and, together, they opened a cash-only practice this year. It took two years of planning, but the couple decided to cut the red tape, and offer affordable, actual care to hundreds of patients.

And, get this, Mary’s husband is 61 years old. He could have easily retired, but the joy and reward of running a cash-only practice has kept him in the practice pool.

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Why Do Great Leaders Inspire Action? They Share A Compelling “Why”.

Direct Care docs, current and aspiring, do you have a few minutes?

Then check out this TED Talk by Simon Sinek. He shares his insight on how great leaders — from Jobs to MLK, Jr. — inspire action in their supporters.

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Direct Care Is A Declaration Of Doctor Independence

Originally appeared on KevinMD.com

Yes, it really is time to revoke the health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats who ARE NOT in the profession of actual healing.

Daniel F. Craviotto Jr. writes on WSJ.com, “In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship.”

Craviotto, Jr. is a doctor who embodies the fight of Direct Care. How we interact and treat our patients truly is the practice of medicine. There’s a problem with the rising cost of health care (for starters, Oregon spent over $1,000 per subscriber on just a website to sign up for coverage that might not even provide a doctor).

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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.

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Direct Care is Not the End of Empathy

If you’re currently running an insurance-based fee-for-service primary care facility, and planning to switch to direct care, you should read this op/ed from the Wall Street Journal. Jerald Winakur practiced internal and geriatric medicine for 36 years and is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. His cousin Irene, a 90-year-old woman living in Queens, was recently notified that her internist was joining the concierge medicine ranks.

Winakur’s thoughts are less than enthusiastic about profit-focused decision making. But, they actually don’t contradict our own belief in Atlas MD-style of direct care. Why is that? Because concierge medicine is not the same as direct care. According to Winakur:

“What Irene learned was that her internist was converting her fee-for-service office into a ‘concierge practice.’ For a yearly retainer of $2,200 (in addition to the usual charges that would still be billed through Medicare and supplemental insurance), Irene would receive “value-added” services. These include same-day appointments, electronic access to her medical records and lab reports, shortened waiting times, and other ‘frills’ that Irene said her doctor always provided anyway.”

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