Villages Health Care System
 

Thinking of joining TV Health. Are you happy with The Villages Health Care System? Would appreciate any pros or cons.

So far so good

I love it. I started going as soon as they opened. I followed the NP that used to work with my Dr. I go to Santa Barbara location.

You might want to do a search (see the search link at the top of the page).

Here is one of many threads:

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...system-137345/

I like it. It was the right choice for me.

My wife and I are both very pleased with The Villages Health Care System. I recently had a sinus infection and I was able to see my family doctor the same day I called.

Access to the doctor is as good as anywhere else, and I love the facilities and the friendliness.

They bent over backwards to help me on New Year's Eve.

I tore half of my big toe nail off, they saw me without an appointment and they got a podiatrist up near Wal-Mart on 466 to stay open until I could get there.

We are part timers until September but signed up last summer to make sure we got a doctor in Pinellas. Very happy with the service and they take my and my wife's Georgia insurances.

My husband and I are very pleased at colony. Everyone is professional AND pleasant to seal with. Right decision for us.

Love The Villages Healthcare System!

It's good to hear these positive reviews.

:BigApplause:

Pleased with the system. I use Colony. Professional, competent, responsive, efficient.

Another positive response from us!

We go to Pinellas and love our NP and MD. I am a RN, so pretty picky. We are pretty healthy, so no serious issues to evaluate. But we love the quick response, ease of being seen, ease of referrals. Lab Results available online. Full disclosure.

We both love our health care here!!

We agree. Have been going to Colony for 2 years. Waits very minimal-- sometimes 5 or 10 minutes. Very pleased with care.

Just had an appointment at Santa Barbara yesterday. Such wonderful care and always very thorough !! They really take the time to make sure everything is up to date and all your questions are answered.

I think it may be too soon to tell. It's still relatively new and, as with most new things, there's a lot of promotional excitement and this has been promoted by a full page of advertising every week.

Also, from my experience, bad reviews are frowned upon so you might not hear anything bad about The Villages Health Care System. But there have been some who expressed disappointment.

The Healthcare Service is very good.

On the other hand, the United Healthcare Villages HMO is something else and all of the doctors other than PCPs (read most of the specialists) are not a part of it.

I recently switched to the United Healthcare Plan F. Still use the same PCP but now I can also go to the specialists in TV rather than driving down to Tavares.

We were talking about Medicare fraud on another thread and some good advice was to ask lots of questions. And that should be the case even if you feel sure there's no fraud.

It's my contention that it's vitally important to know who's paying the "generous salaries" for doctor's services because it has the potential to have a considerable impact on patient healthcare. (It was stated that the Village's Clinic doctors are receiving generous salaries.)

Example: Suppose (in any community) that generous salaries are being paid to doctors by a hospital. The hospital would stand to gain financially when those doctors refer patients for surgery. If a doctor doesn't refer enough patients, that doctor's employment contract will not be renewed when it expires. And those who do refer lots of patients are likely to get a salary increase.

Would you want an important decision, like whether or not to get surgery, to be based on the financial considerations of the doctor and the hospital? If not, you need to ask your doctor to prove his or her source of income, and the source shouldn't be a hospital. That goes for your PCP and your specialist. If your doctor refuses to answer the question by saying it's confidential, then you should know that there's likely a conflict of interest and you should try to find another source of healthcare.

BTW, none of the above is illegal. As a matter of fact, it's becoming more and more common all across the country. Large hospitals are buying small hospitals and then buying doctor's practices. As a consequence, more and more doctors are on hospital payrolls. The name of the game is to do as much surgery as possible because surgery is hugely profitable.

No wonder some patients are "walked to the door".

I'm not sure why VPL continues to refer to "generous" physician salaries. I'm posting some below for informational purposes. Let's also remember that these folks typically have 8-10 years of education/training beyond college and may start practice with a $100+K in student loans to repay.

People with Jobs as Physicians / Doctors Median Salary by Job
Job
National Salary Data (?)
$0$100K$200K$300K
Physician / Doctor, Internal Medicine
857 salaries
$170,322
Family Physician / Doctor
831 salaries
$160,848
Physician / Doctor, General Practice
504 salaries
$137,881
Physician / Doctor, Emergency Room (ER)
425 salaries
$209,183
Physician / Doctor, Radiologist
359 salaries
$290,353
Physician / Doctor, Neurologist
255 salaries
$197,228
Physician / Doctor, Oncologist
228 salaries
$242,260
Country: United States | Currency: USD | Updated: 7 Feb 2015 | Individuals Reporting: 5,134

This is the way it has always been presented in statements emanating from those involved in its creation. There was a link put up not too long ago that contained the phrase "generous salaries". As you may have noticed I put the phrase in quotation marks in my post.

I don't believe one can tell if a health care system is good just by reading a short series of anecdotes. It would require more than that. You would need an observational study to look at large numbers of favorable versus unfavorable patient outcomes.

Unfavorable outcomes might average about 5 or 6%? perhaps? So you could get as many as 30, 40, or 50 people saying that patient care is great, while unfavorable outcomes might be as high as 10 or 12 %.

What would you consider good? A health care system that encouraged the diet that you use?

My husband and I had a bad experience - misdiagnosis. My dear friend who is a RN went with her husband and the doctor would not listen. Now Dr. Noel, who I understand was one of the best has left the practice. I report - you decide.

We aren't "reading a short series of anecdotes". Those answering your question have been there and seen the Doctors. Both I and my husband are happy with our doctor.

Right down to the brand of olive oil.

I'm not sure I understand. Was it Dr. Noel who misdiagnosed your condition and wouldn't listen to your friend? And do you think she left the clinic because of patient's complaints?

I was referring to the purpose of the thread. The OP asked for pros and cons of The Villages health care system. That was her question, not mine. And, in that context, my advice is to be skeptical of a relatively small sampling of anecdotes.

If, for example, 10 or 12 patients out of 100 have a bad outcome that could be a bad sign. So 40, 50, or more people could show up on this thread giving a good review and it may not be the whole story. People of an advanced age with multiple health conditions can die from inappropriate care. And, if they do die, it's unlikely they will show up on this board to complain about it.

Also, we don't know if or how many of the responders to this thread work for The Villages Health Care System. We can only assume that all replies are above board. That alone eliminates any certainty.

No it was not Dr. Noel - I have only heard wonderful things about her which concerns me that she left.

The two situations of misdiagnosis were done by two different doctors. The doctor I had was let go - my friend's misdiagnosis was just recently done.

Thinking of leaving the Villages Health Care System
 

I was happy with the Villages Health Care System, but I am know considering finding a local doctor out of their network (recommendations are appreciated) I am in the middle of a health issue, have seen the doctor several times in the last month, have gone for blood work twice. The latest blood work was done on Feb 13th. Finally saw the results in my patient portal on Feb 17th; called that morning to discuss, emailed the doc on the 18th asking them to call me to discuss, called again this morning asking to speak with someone about the results - still waiting for a call back. This is no way to treat a patient. I have gone from very upset to very mad. Has anyone else experienced this with the villages health care system?

We have only had good experiences at Colony. The doctor as well as her assistant spend time with you and both listen. Labs were posted on the portal within a coiple days. Referrals were sent in same day. Drugs refills must have been sent same day because they were ready for pickup at publix next day. We are both pretty healthy for old farts. Msybe we would feel differently if we had health issues.

I would drive over there and demand to see the Director. Not sure you are guaranteed something similar won't happen at another practice so I would try and fix the problem first....in person and with force.

I will be at the TV soon and need to find a new Dr and Dentist.
Anyone care to recommend one or both ?
Thanks,
Rick

Angel Tafur, MD - internist - 352.350.6241
Don Burbank, DDS - 352.753.5789

The latest breaking news:
 

I believe I must have been the first one to ever ask who pays the doctors who work for The Villages Clinics.

Are you ready for this? It's United Healthcare!

They pay each doctor monthly, so much per patient, and I assume it must be only for the HMO members. Example: If a doctor has 1,250 HMO patients and gets $10. per month for each one, his/her gross salary would be $150,000.00 per year. But remember, that's just an example. I wasn't told the exact amount.

This leads to other questions such as, "How does this arrangement affect patient care?" Suppose a doctor orders multiple tests or refers the patients to multiple specialists? That might be bad, financially, for the HMO. Would the doctor's salary be reduced accordingly. Will doctors get a bonus for giving the least amount of care possible? Remember, HMOs are all about business.

I would like to see your support for this information. Could you please provide a link in your response?

HMO patients never get the same care. The Dr's get paid for all patients that are assigned to him, weather they see them or not. The same check every month. weather the Villages Health care is considered an HMO, I have no idea......well, I do have an idea...I think it is, but I'm not sure. Personally, I would only use a PPO, so I can see any Dr in network....weather here in TV or another state. Same cost as the advantage HMO's (the amount Social Seecurity takes out).

Ha! A link? Are you kidding? They are not going public with this if they can help it. I went to a recent lecture and asked the question, and there will be many more lectures to come. If you would call the USF Health office, I'm sure someone there would be able to help you. Be sure to lets us know what you find out.

One of the UHC relationships is a de facto HMO. Another is a fairly standard PPO. If you have traditional Medicare with a UHC supplement then you can select any practitioner or facility as long as they accept Medicare. The physician and dentist I noted above are in individual private practices and I personally use them.

Well, I think it makes sense. Someone has to pay the salaries and to me the insurance company would seem to be the most logical party. If not UHC, who else would pay the salaries?