Below you will find a link to an article from JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) describing a “new” model of primary care reimbursement to be tested in some areas in the next 5 years, and although this doesn’t apply to regular Medicare or Medicare Advantage members since it will only be a test I think it gives even more validation to our approach as personalized (concierge) medicine.
This “new” model is nothing more than recycling the HMO fiasco of the late 1990’s where for a reduced monthly fee per member, physicians had to keep the costs of care low and hire a tremendous amount of staff to keep up with all bureaucratic demands like authorizations for referrals, medications, treatments and so on.
And how can that be achieved? Mostly by limiting resources, medications, referrals, and ancillary services.
I know there is waste and abuse by providers within the system but that pales in comparison, in dollar terms, to the cost of corruption (some elected officials willing to protect interest groups) that makes our system the most expensive in the industrialized world.
To put the burden on providers to reduce the cost of the delivery of care is both disingenuous and unfair, will inevitably redound in sub par medical care and at the end of the day no real progress will be obtained.
We are happy to tell you that this will not affect you or us in any way, one because it’s not mandatory to physicians or members alike to participate in, and two because we will continue to put your best interest ahead of any “new” ideas being put forward, that is our commitment to you, everything else is recycled bureaucracy.
Source:
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=2513625