Why pay out-of-pocket to see a doctor?

The current model of “healthcare” in the U.S. is broken beyond repair. Patients and providers alike are frustrated beyond words. Insurance companies set the parameters by which all healthcare facilities and providers must operate. It’s a very simple directive...if facilities and providers do not adhere to the rules set forth by insurance companies they don’t get paid for the services they provide. I’ve not-so-jokingly told my patients for many years, “I’m just here to make suggestions, your insurance company will tell you what you can do.” Patients wait for months to see an overbooked physician who is racing against the clock to keep up with a clinic full of patients and has little time to devote to taking a detailed history. The most altruistic of doctors will eventually break under the weight of endless insurance metrics that do nothing but detract from the patient encounter. Patient’s leave the office wondering why they waited so long to see someone whose decision about their care was made before they entered the room. Trust in providers has been shattered because, in a very practical sense, doctors have become involuntary brokers of the insurance companies that reimburse their employers for their services.

Outside the bastion of the insurance model, doctors are employed by their patients. The collaboration between patient and doctor which was long ago sacrificed on the alter of the insurance industry is the cornerstone of the direct pay model. Patients have been groomed for years to sit and listen passively waiting for their doctors to tell them what to do. In the direct pay model patients are encouraged to bring questions, take notes and ask why decisions are being made. Access to doctors in the direct pay model is unmatched. You will be able to directly communicate with your doctor without the layers of administrative insulation that isolate providers from patients in the insurance model. Your preferences regarding the manner in which you want to manage your own health will be honored in decision making. You will have much more time to discuss what is important to you with your doctor during your visits because your doctor is not trying to balance his or her effort with the billing code that fits with the time spent on the problem discussed. Most importantly, the trust you have in your doctor that has been fractured for so long in corporate medicine will be restored. You will be free to ask questions. And your doctor will listen to you.

This is the new paradigm in which we restore “health” in care.

Join me as we reclaim what medicine was intended to be...collaborative curiosity driving innovative care for your health.

It’s time to think differently.

It’s time to think clearly.

It’s time to think well.

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