Health Care is NOT what it used to be!
Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Peter Holst; I am a chiropractor and have been in sole practice in Middletown, NY since December 1986.
This blog is based purely on my experience as a healthcare provider and upon the experiences of other healthcare providers, as well as from the many discussions I have had with non-professional healthcare workers. Certainly as a chiropractor many of the experiences related in this blog may be peculiar to chiropractic care. However, many may also apply to a broad spectrum of other healthcare providers.
Nonetheless, the opinions expressed in this blog are just that, my opinion. Should you have a conflicting opinion you are certainly welcome to offer your comments. Similarly, should you agree or have additional experiences you wish to relate, you are more than welcome to express those.
This blog is simply a forum, both for you and me, to vent our frustrations relative to daily practice and what action steps have been implemented to better deal with a particular situation. We will also have the opportunity to relate how those experiences have affected our practices and our life, as well as offering solutions designed to maintain our income in the current economy.
That said . . . here is my first blog post. I hope you enjoy it and most of all I hope you benefit in one way, shape or form. And, please come back again, I plan on updating this blog regularly.
In the Beginning
In the beginning health insurance was a contract between the subscriber and the carrier. Doctors charged their fee, the insurance carrier paid their 80% and the patient paid their 20%; these were typically known as indemnity plans. Then beginning in the 80’s health insurance started to become not only an agreement between the carrier and subscriber, but also between the carrier and the doctor. This was the time when doctors began losing their autonomy; this was the time when the carriers started being in control; this was the beginning of the end! From this time healthcare decisions were made by administrators and not necessarily doctors; and certainly not by the provider of the care.
Even today, health decisions and doctor’s profiles are more about outcome studies, which are often derived from facts and figures compiled from doctors who are already on the provider panels and who know they are being “watched”. Decisions for patient care is no longer based upon a private one-on-one doctor-patient relationship, and it certainly is NOT based upon the “gut feelings” of the doctor, nor the needs of the patient.
Why did you get into health care? Did you want to help people or did you want to help people based on the kind of insurance they have? With co-pays continuing to be on the rise it just makes more and more sense to convert to a cash practice. By saving on the administrative end, including the cost of forms and postage, and not to mention the extra payroll necessary to submit and then to “chase” your payment, it would seem to me that a very reasonable fee can be established. A fee that could be at, if not very close, to the patient’s co-pay.
That’s it for now . . . I’ll see you next time at FrustratedWithHealthcare.com
My Mission is to relieve physical and financial pain; this blog is dedicated to the financial side. While my main focus is to provide information to help other health care providers, the strategies and advice found in this blog can be used by anyone to supplement their income.
Great article, I could have wrote it 18 yrs ago when I left NY, My last batch of patients $40 -$50 co-pays… I’m already cash practice just don’t know it. I mean pt’s are paying 75% of care anyway, so I’m spending 75% of my resources to re-coup 25% income, because I’m to afraid I wil lose “patients” who just don’t get it… “You Mean your not on my Plan?”
Can you say cash practice? Thanks Ed.