The Uncomfortable Truth About ERs

This image says a lot about the state of our current healthcare system. It says, after 50 years of falsely trusting big health insurance providers, patients no longer have any idea how to properly consume healthcare. Our insurance-driven healthcare system has turned into 'sick-care' system. Providers and hospitals have to get patients through the door, so they can swipe an insurance card. Emergency/Urgent Care, they really don't care. Just toss-up a few signs, snag some patients, and let the billing begin.

The current incentives and motivations in healthcare are driven completely by sickness, not health. Doctors and hospitals need a billing code for every paper-clip, just to get paid. Health insurance companies are mostly public and have a legal obligation to make as much money as possible for shareholders. Think about this... truly, every single person you encounter in healthcare makes more money, the sicker you are. Then who is looking out for unsuspecting patients, who are confused, and intimidated by the system?

The reason 70-75% of ER patients don't meet the standards of an emergency seems painfully obvious. It is that these patients lack any true connection to the healthcare system beyond a 'Blue Cross' card. They don't know a better way to get a professional's medical opinion and help finding the right care, right now. What they do know, is that the ER takes the insurance card.  Its sad how well trained individuals and businesses have become over the past 50 years, that insurance is an acceptable surrogate for actual healthcare. The heart of the healthcare crisis is that a majority of people still believe its safe to trust big name public companies like; Aetna, Blue Cross and United to take care of their health.

The truth is that any solution to this crisis has to involve doing something differently. Any lasting solution needs to rekindle and encourage a long-lost thing known as; consumerism. It was extinguished long ago by big-insurance, low premiums and $5 co-pays. That kind of cheap, accessible care meant consumers didn't have to to care about price, or how much excess-care was being billed to the insurance card. But fast forward to today's $75 dollar co-pays, $6,000 deductibles and $1,000 monthly premiums, and the consumer in everyone should be wide-awake, and painfully-aware that big insurance isn't taking care of you, or your kids when they are sick. There has to be a better way, but what?

When patients have a membership based First Primary Care physician, they have a trusted companion in the consumption of health care. Instead of patients entering the healthcare system in an exclusively episodic fashion (like ER), DPC patients are guided by their very own, dedicated medical professional, with none of the perverse incentives, burdens or distractions of the fee-for-service healthcare system. This benefits not only their health, but also their financial well-being. DPC patients are always better informed and learning to become more responsible 'consumers' of care once again.

We find that nearly 100% of patients are thrilled to have a easy access to a devoted medical professional with a vested interested in their well being. By limiting the cohort, Direct Primary Care physicians are never restricted to quick 'billable' visits and episodic sick care. DPC doctors are fully engaged with their patients on a full range of health issues; chronic, episodic or lifestyle. It is the truly only 'wellness program' that works because it actually informs, engages and encourages patients to be active consumers of health care.