Pediatricians and Parents...Don't wait for the Government

Refreshed after a two-week spring recess, lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill with an aggressive timetable to address health reform. In an April 20 letter to President Obama, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said their two key committees expect to mark up health reform legislation by early June, much earlier than many industry observers had expected. Kennedy chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, while Baucus oversees the Senate Finance Committee... 
Visit http://www.aishealth.com/GNOW/042709.html#gnowfive for more information

Gearing up for more meetings... Parents and Pediatricians, don't wait for the government to solve our healthcare crisis.  Consider minimizing your third party payor relationships and contract directly with your doctor for healthcare, in our direct practice model.  

Also For companies struggling with healthcare costs take a look at our program to lower your out of pocket healthcare costs, enable your employees to create and maintain direct relationships with their pediatrician and enable high quality lower cost attentive house call care for your business.  

www.personalpediatrics.com

Cautious Optimism regarding Swine Flu...

Nice Article about the new york cases of Swine Flu..

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26flu.html?ref=health

Parents, relax, wash hands, follow updates, here or on twitter, and always can use MMWR, morbidity and mortality weekly report as a resource.  

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP

Personal Pediatrics 

Pediatricians let your customers guide your practice

Today's Datapoint 

55% ... of more than 4,000 consumers surveyed by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions say they want to be able to communicate with their physicians via e-mail to make appointments, exchange health information and get answers to their questions.

Nice post from Deloitte.  Here is the thing... in order to be in business,  you must listen to your customer. By that I do not mean the third party insurers.  I mean your patients. Our platform utilizes feedback from customers in a continuous feedback loop, rather than dogma, policy of the third parties to guide it.  If you let insurer reimbursement guide the decisions you make in your practice, you will be left in the dust by your competitors.  Don't forget you are now competing with RETAIL MEDICINE, EVOLVING TELEMEDICINE, IPHONE APPLICATIONS, and a variety of solutions that consumers are turning to rather than showing up in your office.  

We would like to help you implement cash pay solutions to add value to your practice's customers and add value to your business.  

Let us know how we can help. 

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP.  

 

NY Times Article

Here is a nice srticle in NYTimes about the benefits of activity to help labor progress... nice one for mommies to be...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/research/21baby.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimeshealth

mommies you can easily follow us on twitter to get updates as we move into new neighborhoods!!  

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP 

House call enthusiaist, direct practice advocate, mommie, pediatrician...

Insurers and Docs continue to play cat and mouse game

Quote of the Day

"The core of the problem [with UCR rates and Ingenix data] is that providers believe that their full, unregulated billed charges are the usual and customary rates. If health insurers are going to have to pay whatever amount providers put on their bills, this is going to have a significant impact on health insurance premiums and is going to result in additional costs for consumers."

— Steven Ziegler, a Florida-based attorney, told AIS's HEALTH PLAN WEEK.

The Cat and Mouse Game that we play with health insurers is truly a drain on the energies and staff in traditional third party practice.  We believe that direct medial practice should become part of the five year strategic plan of every pediatric practice, to add significant cash pay streams and phase out one's dependence to the third party payors.  We can show you how...

Take a look at www.personalpediatrics.com and give us some feedback! 

Look for us at upcoming AAP meetings and schedule some time with our sales team and let us know how we can help you.  Our consulting and licensing programs can help you implement direct medical practice minimizing your risk in the transition and differentiating your practice from your competition. 

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP

Quote of the Day

"By and large [health insurers] follow the rules, and those rules are stupid. The obsolete business model that has led to all this inefficiency and human suffering is centered on aggressive underwriting and risk selection. The simple thing to do is outlaw it."

— Len Nichols, Ph.D., a health economist and director of health policy at the New America Foundation, told a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing March 24.

Well know health care economist proclaims the healthcare system "stupid" in front of Senate Committee.  

So think about utilizing direct care practice model to add service line to you existing third party offerings.   We are having focus groups in several locations over the next month,n so sign up for our e newsletter and come give us some feedback on our software and marketing platform!! 

Thanks, Natalie Hodge MD FAAP 

Pediatricians Need competitive advantage!!

Today's Datapoint

800 ... IT jobs were eliminated nationwide by Kaiser Permanente under a realignment that includes a $500 million deal with IBM to manage Kaiser's data centers in California and Maryland.

Buy the issue of HEALTH PLAN WEEK in which this datapoint appeared (PDF transmitted immediately)

Found this post about Kaiser today.  Pediatricians in the new marketplace have to compete with the likes of Kaiser's innovative IT systems,  consider how a high tech house call medical practice service line can differentiate your practice from the competition and help you create improved lifestyle, professional satisfaction and improved income.   Our licensing programs are designed to minimize your risk and maximize your conversion in concierge medical practice, allowing you to retain full ownership in your pediatrics practice as well.  We would love to have your feedback.  

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP 

Class Action Lawsuits NOT a practice revenue model.

6. Health Net of the Northeast was ordered by Connecticut to pay a total of $1.3 million to the state and restitution to consumers for improperly denying or underpaying claims... 
Visit http://www.aishealth.com/GNOW/041309.html#gnowsix for more information.

Found this today...  I have been involved in assorted class action suits over the years.  Really a desperate situation, when your third party payor business model leaves you no choice but to sue insurers for money. I think I got a check from United a few years ago for a couple hundred bucks.  

So pediatricians you should think about adding services lines and revenue streams that are independent of third party payors.  That is the mission of our organization.  This leads to improved income, lifestyle and professional satisfaction.  And attentive and personalized care for your patients.  We can show you how. Sign up for our e newsletter for updates on our beta and contact our sales team to find out details on how to add a million in practice revenues, adding only 100k in overhead.  

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP

Full Coverage Insurance Costs Unsustainable...Duh...

Today's Datapoint

8 ... times faster than average U.S. wages has been the growth in employee-paid health insurance premiums since 1994, according to a new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

I pulled this off my ais newsletter this morning.... So what is a Business Owner to do???

STOP PAYING FOR FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE>>>

Adjust your employee to a high deductible plan, chunk the rest of the money in a MSA, up to 5,800.00 a year, thank you Mr. Bush, and enable your employees to access personalized direct medical practice and attentive care by direct medical practicioners. We would love to have your feedback and consider offering our network on your benefits enrollment in the fall. Look for our affiliates moving into the New York, Atlanta Metro, and SanFrancisco areas... We would love to have your feedback and look forward to providing attentive healthcare services to your employees.

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP

Prescription Drug Services for Direct Medical Practice

"If you can buy [prescription drugs] in one market for $50 and sell it in another market for $100, why wouldn't [the initial price rise] to $95 to the second market? They still get a deal, but ... a number of middlemen along the way have made a profit. That's just economics 101. There's no obligation for anyone to sell it at a particular price. As long as [pharmaceuticals imported from abroad] come in below the market price in the U.S., then there is a 'savings,' but the savings might be trivial."

— Adam Fein, Ph.D., president of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., told AIS's DRUG BENEFIT NEWS. 

Interesting comments on prescription pricing... One benefit pediatricians can provide in a direct pediatrics service model and one that the Personal Pediatrics Platform includes is branded pharmaceuticals for use directly prescribing to the patient.  It's great to mix up amox in the home for a baby with an acute otitis media and give their first dose.  Parents love this as a service and it provides another cash revenue stream for the pediatrician.  

Let us know if we can help you create  a customized direct medical practice service line for your practice, or simply license our process for even greater cost savings and cash flow in the future for your practice.  

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP

Would love to have feedback from Pediatricians!!

Feedback from Pediatricians on Direct Medical Practice 

Each market is different.  Has different people, different median age, religion, income levels, stratifications of employment.   We would love to have feedback from pediatricians on thoughts on how implementing direct medical practice might have challenges.  We have targeted our top tier markets which are easy and will be a breeze.  But what about smaller towns?  Is there also a different price point for other markets that fit in with a successful transition away from traditional third party payor practice?   My gut feeling here is that there truly is the potential to connect parents nationally that want house calls with doctors nationally that want direct medical practice through the pp website.  The shift to high deductible plans and consumer directed care will only enable the transition.  Let me know how we can help you in your practice.  

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP 

Interesting Article about Consumer Directed Care

Interesting article about consumer directed care.  The shift to high deductible plans really enables direct practice models to flourish.  I found my patients preferred paying me directly in combination with high deductible plan.  

Down Economy, Continuing Health Care Cost Increases Spur Large Employers to Offer Consumer-Directed Health PlansReprinted from INSIDE CONSUMER-DIRECTED CARE 

Annual health care benefit cost increases running at twice the rate of inflation, coupled with an economy in freefall, are pushing a growing number of large employers to offer consumer-directed health (CDH) plans, the forthcoming 14th annual National Business Group on Health/Watson Wyatt Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care finds. Many of these employers will be offering their employees incentives to join these plans during 2009. And large employers that are offering CDH plans are now showing promising cost trending results....Read Full Story

Natalie Hodge MD FAAP

www.personalpediatrics.com