Comments on: If You Had to Fix Just One Thing

By: artful

artful — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:14:10 +0000

Being 80 million patients short on primary care physicians now, as the US is 16,000 too few now, and with few medical students opting for practice in primary care, and existing ones retiring faster than they can be replaced; adding 15 millon new Medicaid and other government patients means patients will not be able to see primary care physicians longer, if at all.

And since some $100 to $500 billion each year is lost to fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, adding another government program will just increase fraud as most of these crooks steal from both Medicaid and Medicare at the same time and will just expand their victims.
Since credit card fraud is only 1/10th of 1% compared to 12% to 30% in government programs and we own considerable interest in several large banks which sponser credit cards, the most simple and effective way to almost eliminate fraud is to put all government healthcare recipients on the system with the least fraud. When this is done, our costs will decrease to the levels of all other countries and we will go down to spending about 10% of our GDP on healthcare instead of the 17% we spend now.

Healthcare fraud is effectively 7% of our GDP and projects to expand to the low 20% level!

By: artful

artful — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:14:10 +0000

By: 2healthguru

2healthguru — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:34:41 +0000

Indeed Evan, primary care can simplify the system immensely but it can not fix the failing model absent reform of the financing paradigm. Too many payors, too much complexity, too much little value and way too many niche business opportunities from contract revenue cycle management to medical practice management 'solutions' designed to lower the overhead associated with the administration of health plan business relationships.

I continue to call the question as to whether there is value in the potpourri of payors who all too often merely slice and dice benefit plans only as window dressing for the cost shifting charade they truly represent, in a failed effort to restrain medical cost inflation.

We'll need to bite that bullet soon, lest we go along to get along politically, but contribute little if any material solutions to the national dialog.

By: Weekend Roundup « See First Blog

Weekend Roundup « See First Blog — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:32:07 +0000

[...] How to Fix Health Care in One Step [...]

By: valjonesmd

valjonesmd — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:49:40 +0000

Amen. I'm joining my PCP's practice for just this reason – people need help with care coordination, and they need more time with their doctors. When PCPs opt out of the excessive administrative burdens required by health insurance, they can refocus their time and attention on the patient.

The average PCP requires 4.5 support staff to deal with reimbursal and documentation. Our practice has reduced that to 0.5 – and we pass on that savings to our patients by spending more time with them, and charging an affordable hourly rate. We do house calls, office visits, phone calls, email – whatever's convenient and necessary. No fee/service with a complicated pricing structure. Just fee/time. No membership fees or hidden costs. Our average patient spends only $300 year on their primary care – and they have access to us 24/7. If they want to submit our invoices to their insurance companies they may do so… But when your care costs about the same as your copays – why bother?

This is healthcare set free…