Physician Empowerment: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

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  • 03/27/2009
Imagine a physician suddenly decides – of his own volition – to lower what he or she charges patients for a routine office visit.
 
Now imagine that for her good deed said physician is ostracized by government bureaucrats and told that she is in violation of the law and must instead charge her patients a substantially higher fee.
 
Sound like fiction? Think again.
 
In December of last year, the New York Post reported the following:

An enterprising New York physician sick of dealing with tedious and time-consuming health-insurance practices is cutting out the middleman and offering unlimited office care directly to patients for $79 a month.

That physician is named Dr. John Muney.
 
Dr. Muney was also offering annual mammograms, mole removal, and other procedures for under $1,000 a year.

Congratulations? Not so fast.

The New York State Insurance Department told Dr. Muney that the fixed-rate plan he was offering constituted an insurance policy and he had no choice but to cave in to the pressure and increase his fees.

Dr. Muney stated, “I really don’t want to charge more. They’re forcing me.”
 
 
Despite this development, there is a good reason to be optimistic that Dr. Muney’s eschewal of third-party intervention is a harbinger of things to come in the delivery of primary care.
 
A few months ago, the NationalCenter for Policy Analysis released a report entitled, “Health Care Entrepreneurs: The Changing Nature of Providers.”
 
The paper explains:
 
“Some innovative physicians are rebundling and repricing medical services in ways that are not possible under third-party insurance. For a fixed monthly fee, they offer such services as price and fee negotiations for diagnostic tests and specialist services, patient education and more convenience and accessibility for primary care. Concierge physicians tend to relate to their patients in much the same way lawyers, accountants, engineers and other professionals interact with their clients — including phone calls, e-mail consultations and convenient Web-based services.”
 
Here’s hoping that Dr. Muney and others like him represent a burgeoning movement toward the strengthening of the doctor-patient relationship and health care freedom.

CMPI

Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.

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