Quote:
Originally Posted by pivo
I had 9:30 appointment for a test I got in at 10:30 and asked how it took so long.
The answer from the nurse and assistant was they overbook when it comes to testing it was doctors day off and they try to cram as many appointments as they ca, naturally more test more money even the aide and nurse were upset because they get stuck with pushing the testt as fast as possible.
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And they'd be even more upset if the dr. cannot bring in enough revenue to pay them. The employees have to be paid
regardless of even zero patients come in that day.
This is best explained by a family physician explaining why direct care on a small monthly subscriber fee works far better and lowers costs of providing care:
"The clinics frequented by most people bill insurance for the great majority of the clinic’s income. Once
a decision is made to bill insurance for health care services it starts a chain reaction that ends in having to hire a large number of people and/or invest in a lot of technology.
Employees and software are needed to make sure that the patient’s insurance is active before the visit starts, employees have to be hired to call the insurance company to obtain prior authorization for suggested procedures, software is needed to prepare the bill that has to be in a certain format, and more people are needed to call the insurance company after the bill is returned unpaid with a note saying that an “i” wasn’t dotted or a “t” wasn’t crossed. Patients have to wait 15 to 30 minutes and listen to hold music to speak to an actual human being when you call your insurance company, health care professionals have to wait just as long.
Before doctors even open the doors of a new clinic that accepts insurance, they’ve had to hire a number of people just to manage the clinic’s relationship with insurance companies. Part of the clinic’s overhead expenses are these employees that must be paid even when no patients come in. And these paid positions have nothing to do with the quality of medical care that the patients receive.
Now let’s talk about what your insurance company will pay for your visit. For
a typical follow-up visit for low to moderate severity issues, your insurance company pays anywhere from $45 to $75 to the doctor’s office. You can also add your $20 copay to this amount. The American Medical Association suggests that these visits are supposed to take 15 minutes face-to-face with the patient. That doesn’t happen very often.
If your doctor has 4 of these visits per hour, she is paid anywhere from $260 to $380 per hour when you include the payment from the insurance company and the collected co-pay. The last primary care doctor I spoke with told me that his hourly overhead is $700. When your expenses are greater than your revenue the math doesn’t work, but those are the numbers……"
How direct primary care reduces the costs of care