Open up a concierge practice, well this physician was canceled by one carrier. Other carriers have done the same in other instances. Read the full story for all the details. Physicians all over are changing business models and when they select to charge and give the patient the time for the pursuit of better health care, well you can see what occurs. If the contract 
rates were not so low, perhaps this would not be such a big issue, and the fact that it takes 20-40 visits a day with patients to keep the doors open as I see here all the time with physicians in southern California. BD
Dr. Steven Knope was recently interviewed by the Arizona Republic about his concierge medicine practice. When Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance (BC/BS) heard about it, they chose to terminate his contract.
BC/BS claimed that they were "looking out for their members", to make sure that physicians charge the agreed-upon rates to BC/BS patients. But Knope points out that when he sees his concierge patients, it's a matter of private contract between him and them. According to this article in the September 5, 2008 Arizona Republic:
http://medpolitics.com/content/Concierge-Physician-vs-Blue-CrossBlue-Shield
After reading the article I checked out Steven Knope's blog - pretty interesting!
ReplyDelete