Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Primary Care Doctors Who Are Fed Up With Industry Are More And More Cutting Out The Middleman
The Washington Post: Some Family Doctors Ditch Insurance For Simpler Approach
Like many primary care doctors working in large medical systems, [Emilie] Scott was encouraged to see a new patient every 20 minutes. But that was barely enough time to talk and do a physical. She eventually quit her job to try a new approach aimed at eliminating many of the headaches of traditional health care: tight schedules, short appointments and piles of insurance paperwork. Instead of billing insurers, Scott now charges patients a $79 monthly fee that covers office visits, phone calls, emails, texts and certain medical tests and procedures. (12/10)
In other news on health care costs —
ProPublica: Sen. Chuck Grassley Wants A Hospital System That Sued Poor Patients To Explain Itself
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has called on the largest health care system in Memphis, Tennessee, to explain its debt collection, charity care and billing practices after an investigation by MLK50 and ProPublica found that it was aggressively suing poor patients, including its own employees. In a letter sent last week, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has been a leading critic of nonprofit hospitals that misuse their tax-exempt status, asked Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare how it intended to carry out promised reforms of its financial assistance system. (Thomas, 12/10)
