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Can You and Your Doctor Thrive Without Medicare and Insurance Plans?
By
Dr. George Watson
Guest Columnist
Patients
and doctors need to ask: what should a medical practice be like?
For doctors: Would you like more time with your patients; fewer or no insurance
company hassles and prior authorizations, and less paperwork? Would you like
to determine a fair price for your service, together with your patient? Would
you like your daily receipts to equal your daily charges? Would you like to be
called “Doctor” rather than “Provider”?
For patients: Is this the kind of doctor you would like to have? And would you
like your current doctor to stay in practice? If so, you should ask your doctor
to carefully consider this article. It might enable him to be there for you.
Many doctors are now at the fork in the road where I found myself seven years
ago. I had completed the certification exam in age-management medicine, and began
to offer services that the insurance companies said were “non-covered.” Overhead
continued. Receipts went down.
On the verge of bankruptcy, I received a flyer titled “Thrive, Don’t
Just Survive,” so I charged my airline ticket and room to my credit card
and went to check it out. I heard a family physician tell how the HMOs turned
the screw one more notch and bankrupted half of the family practices in the state.
Then he told how he turned the situation around.
He now had joy in serving his patients, and was collecting a fair price at the
time of service. I thought, “Sure, a family physician could do that, but
it wouldn’t work in any specialty.” Then an orthopedic surgeon and
an urologist told similar stories of how they too were really enjoying medicine
after they opted out of Medicare and all insurance contracts. I thought, “If
they can do it, I can too!”
By God’s Grace, the office I had formerly used was going to be vacated
in two months, and the lessee still had lease obligations. The equipment there,
which I had sold them when I was called up for Desert Storm in 1991, was going
into storage, as the doctor was moving to a newer, better equipped facility.
I took over the lease in return for the equipment October 1, 2003, and I started
over with one employee and no patients. (Like many recent government appointees,
I even owed back taxes). I bought supplies and signage with credit cards. I bought
a 10 second co-op ad on the local Fox channel that said, “Imagine, a 5
minute doctor visit for $20!” We handed out flyers to local businesses.
I met with business owners, explaining that I was 100% committed to them and
their employees, not the insurance companies.
My employee and I painted rooms when we weren’t seeing patients.
Starting from less than zero, I made a profit in month five. A doctor who kept
all but 20 percent of his patients, but cut out insurance overhead and write-offs,
could be profitable the very first month. The patients who stayed would be choosing
their doctor — not picking an insurance company doctor from a list.
In 2006, I bought out another doctor in Hays, Kansas, which required that I buy
a Mooney 201 airplane in 2007. In 2008, I bought a Dexa bone scanner to complement
my Thermography service. And this past June, I bought a new Expedition to keep
my taxable income as low as possible.
Today some of my patients ask, “How will the new health law affect you?
You won’t quit, will you?“
Of course I won’t. My practice is what I dreamed of when I started medical
school. I work for my patients — not the insurance company or the government!
Many doctors will not have the courage to change course. But if they continue
taking money from third parties, people like the government’s “recovery
audit contractors” will stick the fork in them.
Doctors need to take the fork that is — so far — less traveled. And
patients need to find such a doctor. Insurers may have intimidated doctors so
they believe they can’t survive without signing every contract. The fact
is, patients and doctors need each other, but doctors don’t need those
contracts.
Both patients (see www.takebackmedicine.com) and doctors (see www.aapsonline
org) need to declare independence.
This page and its contents ©2010
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
