Some Medicare Advantage plans are creating their own primary care clinics.
This makes a lot of sense. Seniors have numerous health needs; yet Medicare doesn’t reimburse physicians adequately for primary care. As a result, many primary care physicians who treat Medicare enrollees merely refer them to specialists when a senior presents with a problem. This results in excess physician visits and often costly specialty treatments of dubious value. Also, visiting the doctor can become a social event for home-bound seniors. Having a primary care clinic where enrolled seniors can seem ordinary care could theoretically save a bundle compared to fee-for-service.
I am a big fan of the remote doctor visit concept as long as it results in lower costs. While some services cannot be duplicated remotely, routine medication management can be take care of this way.
@August, in some care settings only nurses are allowed to trim toenails for this very reason. To a patient with a weak immune system, bad circulation, or other compromising condition an ingrown toenail, leading to infection, can cause big problems.
that charts in the first link are kind of confusing but i think they affirm what we already know: many states don’t plan on creating exchanges, at least by the deadline.
Tele-Medicine is a much needed change in health care. Just today I had to wait 50 min to talk to my doctor for less than 5 min. Seriously, why couldn’t I have taken care of this over the phone. We need to get away from the mind-set that the only way to interact with a doctor is person-to-person, in contemporary society, this interaction has a high cost, both opportunity and financial.
Some Medicare Advantage plans are creating their own primary care clinics.
This makes a lot of sense. Seniors have numerous health needs; yet Medicare doesn’t reimburse physicians adequately for primary care. As a result, many primary care physicians who treat Medicare enrollees merely refer them to specialists when a senior presents with a problem. This results in excess physician visits and often costly specialty treatments of dubious value. Also, visiting the doctor can become a social event for home-bound seniors. Having a primary care clinic where enrolled seniors can seem ordinary care could theoretically save a bundle compared to fee-for-service.
“They’ll even cut patient toenails in an effort to avoid foot infections.”
Full service clinics.
I am a big fan of the remote doctor visit concept as long as it results in lower costs. While some services cannot be duplicated remotely, routine medication management can be take care of this way.
@August, in some care settings only nurses are allowed to trim toenails for this very reason. To a patient with a weak immune system, bad circulation, or other compromising condition an ingrown toenail, leading to infection, can cause big problems.
@August, lol.
Fully support the second.
@Barry, same.
that charts in the first link are kind of confusing but i think they affirm what we already know: many states don’t plan on creating exchanges, at least by the deadline.
Tele-Medicine is a much needed change in health care. Just today I had to wait 50 min to talk to my doctor for less than 5 min. Seriously, why couldn’t I have taken care of this over the phone. We need to get away from the mind-set that the only way to interact with a doctor is person-to-person, in contemporary society, this interaction has a high cost, both opportunity and financial.