Thursday, October 26, 2006

Personal Pediatrics= House call Pediatricians

I was at an interesting meeting this morning of healthcare managers. As a pediatrician it is interesting to be in such a room. The discussion came around to "how to fix healthcare?" One advocated for a single Government payor system, realizing that as in England, there likely will coexist a 15% or so of population that prefer private pay or private insurance. ( Did anyone think that the Queen of England would wait in the queue?) A two tier system is evolving in America. The critics of the retainer based ( concierge medicine ) model say that it is "elitist." I'm curious how many of these critics happen to own stock in Blue Cross Blue Shield or Aetna or United Health Care? Doctors are in the position of the government (via controlling medicare/medicaid)deciding what their wages "should" be then reducing reimbursements until they get back to that point. (Apparently the target wage is 120 grand a year ( word on the street) Why would any healthy family in America pay Blue Cross Blue Shield 13 grand 5 hundred dollars a year for an hour wait to see a nurse?? Pay Blue Cross 4 grand in case you are hit by a bus and pay your Personal Pediatrics Affiliate House call pediatrician directly out of pretax Medical Savings Account dollars. House Calls for babies?? Some may call it elitist, but we just call it commmon sense. Private or National health house call systems are available in many countries, Japan, South Africa, France, England... Why should children wait in droves in the winter in a busy office when they can have a House Call Pediatrician at their doorstep?

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