I feel I should pinch myself as I’m driving to my next housecall. Who would have thought that I would be practicing Family Medicine the way I envisioned when applying to medical school, before my naivete faced the reality of the current healthcare system?
Hapless with Highmark (and the Hope of Direct Primary Care)
We caught our first glimpse of storm clouds in October with this article in LNP. Highmark, the health insurer with the largest proportion of plans purchased by Pennsylvanians on healthcare.gov, would be dropping it’s most popular plans for 2016.
Your Car Insurance Now Pays For Your Gas! (An Exercise in Absurdity)
Appropriated Press: Officials in Washington have confirmed that car insurance companies will now be required to pay for gas. "Transportation is a fundamental right of all Americans. Therefore gas is a fundamental right of all Americans," said one congressman. Consumer groups are split on the issue. Some embrace the savings to American families, others see the ghastly (gassly?) auto insurance premium hikes coming down the pike, and they are also aghast (agassed?) at the new Federal mandate coming in 2017.
How the Amish Made Me a Better Doctor
I’ve spent the last three years of my career as a doctor for the Amish. It is frontier medicine. I can regale you with stories of mangled hands immersed in cans of kerosene, arms and legs impaled with any number of small metal objects, injuries wrought by farm animals and table saws, of medical problems in states of extremis seldom seen and treated in outpatient clinics, of croupy toddlers finding relief from my breathing treatments at 2am.
What is Direct Primary Care? (Part 3 of 3)
This post will conclude my three-part series, “What is Direct Primary Care?” In the first post, I defined Direct Primary Care (DPC) and talked about the first of three distinctives that will set CovenantMD apart from other practices: adequate time with your doctor. In the second post, I talked about access to your doctor. In this post, I’ll talk about value in primary care.