Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Your Doctor's World Is Evolving How Will It Impact You?

By Coleen Elkins



Have you recently visited a doctors office that is located in a building attached to a hospital? Doctors often situate themselves near a hospital but now more around found at the hospital.


Instead of doctors having a single office with there name on the door and their own staff there may be a list of 20 physicians on the sign outside the door. These are doctors have made the decision to join  large health network and become "employees" instead of "employers". Fortunately this could be good news because it puts his or her focus back on you.

Why is this happening? Doctors are being paid less for their services by insurance companies. They have been asked to do more with less money. Physicians are being required to produce more data and documentation than ever before which takes valuable time and man power and upgraded technology. All these required changes drives up their cost of doing business. Sole practitioners or a handful of doctors in a small office setting can only see so many patients in a day. They have had no choice but to evolve their practice to change with the times or burn out trying to keep up.

Those that decide to stay independent are finding ways to replace the income lost due to contractual cuts the insurance companies have imposed on them. One way of doing that is by making a part of their practice a concierge service. Under this model you pay a monthly fee such as $150 per month for unlimited access to your physician.This means your are promised same day appointments, a direct phone line to your doctor and the ability to text them even when they are away from the office.

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