The End of Health Insurance as We Know It? | Via Meadia

Up to one-third of?independently?practicing?physicians in the US may soon stop using health insurance as we have come to think of it.?Kaiser Health News reports on attempts by health care practices to change how they do business as a result of shifting industry patterns, the?uncertainty created by the ACA, and the public pressure on them to offer better and cheaper care.

One of the most?notable experiments is the so-called ?subscription model,? in which a patient pays a basic monthly flat fee to a practice that covers the costs of all basic services. We?ve written about this model before. Though it sounds like health insurance by another name, it manages to cut out a lot of the administrative overhead of that method, saving both the practice and the patient money. According to Kaiser Health news, the subscription model may soon be coming to a primary care physician near you:

?The proportion of independently practicing physicians, working in groups or solo, will fall to 36 percent this year. One-third of those will choose a subscription-based model.

This is only one of the new funding models the piece highlights. Another is the ?medical home,? which is, according to the National Committee for Quality Insurance, ?a model of care where patients have a direct?relationship with a provider who coordinates a cooperative team of healthcare?professionals.? Kaiser reports:

The medical home model?s focus on preventive care includes newer technologies, like a weighing scale that reports a patient?s weight directly from home to the clinic, and reminders to patients of routine diabetes or cancer screenings. The Heights Medical Center, as the practice is called, has also expanded from two to five doctors and nurses, and hired a patient coordinator who organizes doctor visits, referrals and prescriptions.

This kind of experimentation is exactly what we want to see more of in our health care system. We need to find new ways to deliver services and to introduce price sensitivity to the health care market for consumers. Obamacare does little to move us toward these goals.

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Source: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/05/15/the-end-of-health-insurance-as-we-know-it/

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