One gastroenterologists shares his experience of practicing outside the traditional payer-based payment model.
Ask a Gastroenterologist is a weekly series of questions posed to GI physicians around the country on business and clinical issues affecting the field of gastroenterology. We invite all gastroenterologists to submit responses.
Next week's question: What are some of the best ancillary service lines for GI practices to consider adding?
Please submit responses to Carrie Pallardy at cpallardy@beckershealthcare.com by Thursday, April 9, at 5 p.m. CST.
Larry Good, MD, FACG, founder, CEO Good Pharmaceutical Development, CEO, Compassionate Care Center of New York: I opted out of insurance-based practice for several years. I continue to accept Medicare as a courtesy to my long standing patients, but that is becoming an economic challenge.
Essentially my practice works on a fee-for-service basis, my staff files insurance claims for patients and they are reimbursed. There has been a negative impact on the practice in 2015 because, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, deductibles for patients with private insurance have become so high that medical care is now often unaffordable for some patients: a strange outcome of the Affordable Care Act. I also have a small concierge internal medicine practice, which provides economic stability to the practice.
It is unrealistic to expect full service, patient centered practices to be financially viable without requiring patients to have significant responsibility for their healthcare decision making. I enjoy caring for my patients who have made a commitment to me. They are satisfied with my commitment to them, the support I provide and virtual twenty 24 access.
It is liberating to extract oneself from the bureaucratic control of institution or insurance company based medicine. I invite my colleagues to try it.
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