Doctor General is NOT the Answer

This article/story from NPR about DocGo parking at Dollar General is priceless. The van above is parked at a Dollar General and the narrative they are trying to construct is let’s bring health clinic to the people.

Catering to those who want urgent or primary care, the mobile clinics take private insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare. The company’s website says DocGo’s self-pay rates?start at $69?for patients without insurance or who are out of network. DocGo officials said Tennessee patients may be charged different rates but declined to provide details

I just love the idea of these companies thinking they really are helping people. They get a ton of VC money and think they can outsmart what doctors are doing in their clinics. They think prospective patients who are DRIVING to the Dollar General to get their processed foods, their alcohol, and their smokes can’t somehow drive their cars from Dollar General to a regular clinic. Or are too lazy to do it?

And how about this: Do you think any doctor is going to work for a mobile clinic parked at the Dollar General?

From the DocGo website, you have this:

DocGo employs thousands of clinicians, and we’d like to introduce you to a few of our friendly team members. All of our clinicians are licensed medical professionals. All visits are conducted by an Advanced Practice Provider (an NP, PA, or Physician).?

Let’s just first notice how physicians are included as Advanced Practice Providers. Are you f#cking kidding me? That is how bad it has gotten for us. And we all know damn well they may have ONE doc in the whole company on staff so they can include us in their bio.

So is it working?

“We do try for months in a given area to see where it makes sense and where it doesn’t,” former DocGo CEO Anthony Capone said in a July interview. “Our goal is to align the supply we have with the demand of the local community.”

Why would NPR interview their former CEO? Well, there’s this:

Capone?abruptly resigned?on Sept. 15 after the Albany Times Union reported he lied about having a graduate degree. In a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Capone resigned “for personal reasons.

Hahaha!

Let's be honest, this will be an insurance and Medicare/Medicaid grab. I have seen it in an Urgent Care I worked at a decade ago. Everything was upcoded by the EMR to a level 4 or 5 to squeeze every dollar out of every visit.

Want some more? How about these tidbits:

• DocGo is under fire for a no-bid contract to provide housing, busing, and other services for asylum-seekers in New York.
• The company’s pilot with Dollar General is “supported with funding from the state of Tennessee,” The goal of?the $2.4 million grant, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and distributed by the Tennessee Department of Health, is to administer covid-19 vaccines. The grant covers storage and maintenance of covid-19 vaccines on the DocGo mobile clinics.

To summarize, these are nondoctor mobile vehicles hanging out at Dollar Generals and seeing very few patients. The company has already lost its CEO due to fraud. They are subsisting on a grant for Covid vaccines and they are messing around with asylum seekers in NY to get extra money.

And NPR decides DocGo is a feel-good story to tell the world about?

This whole concept will fail miserably.