jasoncran
Member
Offering Medical Service, No Insurance Allowed - Hartford Courant
No Insurance Allowed
Windsor physicians' flat-fee program is an example of a growing grass-roots movement called direct primary care
February 25, 2011|By MATTHEW STURDEVANT, msturdevant@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
Rick Hartford, Hartford CourantWINDSOR — — Patients are surprised when either Dr. Jane Walker or Dr. Kathleen Mueller answers the phone at their office, a two-story house on a neatly manicured section of Bloomfield Avenue near the center of town.
It's just as startling when one of them hands out a cellphone number and e-mail address to a patient. Fortunately, Walker and Mueller say, they've trained patients to call only when they really need medical attention.
But here's the real shocker: Walker and Mueller don't take insurance. They bill patients in one of two ways — $55 a visit as needed, or $30 a month plus $15 a visit.
"This is back-to-basics medicine," said Walker, a fourth-generation family physician. "This is medicine that my grandfather did, my great-grandfather. And it's so much more fun because we're not supposed to be dealing with insurance companies. We're supposed to be taking that amount of time, and we're supposed to be dealing with patients."
Ads by Google
Angie's List Doctors
Want The Best Local Doctor? Join Angie's List & Read Patient Reviews www.AngiesList.comAdvertisement
Walker and Mueller do accept Medicare. They don't take payment from major health insurance carriers that provide the financial lifeblood for most family doctors and primary-care physicians in Connecticut: Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, ConnectiCare, CIGNA, UnitedHealthcare.
Their practice, Holistic Health Partnering LLC, is a new business model to their patients, but not completely new in the nation. In some ways, theirs is an old billing system used before the days of managed care.
It's also an example of a growing grass-roots movement among some primary-care doctors in the U.S. to cut out the insurer as a billing middleman. Charging patients a monthly fee at half the price of cable television is an attractive way to offer some medical services to the uninsured, or people who have limited, high-deductible health plans, the doctors say.
The model goes by many names — "direct primary care," "micro practice" and "innovative medical practice."
Monthly fees make some people think of "concierge" or "boutique" medicine, which is aimed at affluent patients who want closer attention. The difference is that concierge medicine is typically priced higher with strict patient limits and sometimes involves billing insurance on top of the monthly fee.
No Insurance Allowed
Windsor physicians' flat-fee program is an example of a growing grass-roots movement called direct primary care
February 25, 2011|By MATTHEW STURDEVANT, msturdevant@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
Rick Hartford, Hartford CourantWINDSOR — — Patients are surprised when either Dr. Jane Walker or Dr. Kathleen Mueller answers the phone at their office, a two-story house on a neatly manicured section of Bloomfield Avenue near the center of town.
It's just as startling when one of them hands out a cellphone number and e-mail address to a patient. Fortunately, Walker and Mueller say, they've trained patients to call only when they really need medical attention.
But here's the real shocker: Walker and Mueller don't take insurance. They bill patients in one of two ways — $55 a visit as needed, or $30 a month plus $15 a visit.
"This is back-to-basics medicine," said Walker, a fourth-generation family physician. "This is medicine that my grandfather did, my great-grandfather. And it's so much more fun because we're not supposed to be dealing with insurance companies. We're supposed to be taking that amount of time, and we're supposed to be dealing with patients."
Ads by Google
Angie's List Doctors
Want The Best Local Doctor? Join Angie's List & Read Patient Reviews www.AngiesList.comAdvertisement
Walker and Mueller do accept Medicare. They don't take payment from major health insurance carriers that provide the financial lifeblood for most family doctors and primary-care physicians in Connecticut: Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, ConnectiCare, CIGNA, UnitedHealthcare.
Their practice, Holistic Health Partnering LLC, is a new business model to their patients, but not completely new in the nation. In some ways, theirs is an old billing system used before the days of managed care.
It's also an example of a growing grass-roots movement among some primary-care doctors in the U.S. to cut out the insurer as a billing middleman. Charging patients a monthly fee at half the price of cable television is an attractive way to offer some medical services to the uninsured, or people who have limited, high-deductible health plans, the doctors say.
The model goes by many names — "direct primary care," "micro practice" and "innovative medical practice."
Monthly fees make some people think of "concierge" or "boutique" medicine, which is aimed at affluent patients who want closer attention. The difference is that concierge medicine is typically priced higher with strict patient limits and sometimes involves billing insurance on top of the monthly fee.
