Direct Primary Care, No Insurance Required for Dr Visits

Growing health care model skips past insurance, expanding in Tennessee
(not just TN)

LINK to a US map of DCPs

I recently resigned from my position due to an injury, and now I am a full time undergrad student living on my Post-9/11 GI Bill. Because of this I no longer have health insurance. I will be joining one of the DCPs in my area.

Thoughts?

 

Im a huge fan of consierge care. Its far cheaper than any insurance plan as long as you combine it with a high deductible catasprophic care plan.

 

I didn't even know this was an option until now.

 

It isnt well known and is considered something only for the rich.

 

the sooner America moves to free universal healthcare, the better. health insurance and 'private' medicine would still be available, for those who regard it as a status symbol.

 

Do you really need it? Go to the VAMC closest to you.

 

At the nearest one to me it's $125 enrollment and $60/month...not bad

 

I ETSd in 2005 and have never been to the VA. Maybe I will look into it.

 

Something i need to look at too.

 

https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/apply/

 

Thanks buddy

 

Yep. Should there be any glitches, see if your congressman or senator's office will assist you. The usually have constituent services staff that deal with people's benefits and such when it comes to the federal government. A lot of them are pretty crackerjack with veterans matters.

 

Good to know. Thanks again

 

Yeah, well why don't you spell out what is actually covered at that price. Basically nothing other than primary physician visits. No testing, no specialists, no hospital. No medicine. Just another pretend solution to the American healthcare crisis.

 

Where I live, many physicians and medical services have 2 price lists: the insurance prices; and the direct pay prices. If you pay when the service is provided, and do not go through insurance, the price drops between 25-40%.

There is an immediate care facility that does not take any insurance (not even medicare or medicaid), cash only, its prices are less than half of what other places charge.

You might think the savings is all because insurance companies are so greedy. Wrong. Bypassing the insurance means not having to deal with all insurance companies - and the govt. Insurance/medicare/medicaid is the route used by the feds to dictate how a medical business operates. Cut out the insurance, you also cut out the feds to a huge degree.

And when you cut out the insurance company, you also cut out the Medical Insurance Bureau and all the patient reporting and record keeping. That means true patient privacy.

More and more we see that the government really is the problem.

 

Am fairly sure the savings is in reduced staff, not reduced records. I think they are required to keep medical records. The doctor would be an idiot to not keep patient records.

 

I believe what you're discussing is like an HMO.
The traditional problem with HMOs is that there's a built-in financial incentive for the provider to keep down expenses as much as possible, even if quality suffers. In fact, if a sickly patient dies, that could end up saving the health care provider lots of money.

Supposedly, Preferred Provider networks provide the best balance between the tendencies towards hospitals wanting to overbill patients versus the hospital wanting you to die.

 

They all keep medical records, but the records do not have to be submitted to the MIB or medicare or Medicaid, and they do not have to meet the electronic record keeping requirements which require incredible detail including a huge expansion of the coding system.

There is obviously a savings in labor. Since they don't submit those records in order to get paid, they don't have to spend time creating the records to the insured/govt formats, and they don't have to deal with the reviews and requests for additional explanation.

They also save in actual cash - with insurance and the govt, the physician is not paid at the time of service but 30-90 days later when the insurance/govt "reimburses" the doctor and facility. That means the medical clinic has to have the cash in hand to operate for up to 90 days - one full fiscal quarter. That means there is a "cost of money", and additional accounting and bookkeeping as well.

 

Do you have a citation which states they are exempt from the electronic medical record requirements or reporting to the MIB?

 

You should be paying for all of your primary care needs. Insurance us for big stuff

 

But the reporting requirements, which are cumbersome and costly are absent

 

Well if you are proposing single payer universal catastropic coverage that might be interesting. Say perhaps that government insurance covered all medical care after 7% of of income. So if say a family earned $50,000 all medical expenses would be paid after the $3500 deductable. Might work.

 

Was around before Obamacare and growing. I don't know how Obamacare has affected it, if at all.

 

The estimate from offices that have done this is a 40% reduction in costs.

 

Paying your own damn insurance will work too