Direct Primary Care
"Direct primary care (DPC) is a cash-based membership model for a more rational delivery model, benefiting both doctors and patients. It reduces care to the fewest number of intermediaries and stodgy layers, while allowing patients to insert insurance for protection against large claims. Mark Twain said “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.” Paying cash for primary care is not new, but it’s a model that’s resurging after decades of being overly tangled with insurance, to protect against financial ruin. Ed Winters Ronaldson of HealthDirectly and I wrote a whitepaper on DPC. It takes the novel approach of combining survey data, utilization data from multiple DPC practices, trends in claims data pre- and post-DPC implementation from 19,000 members, and public data on an alternative DPC-leaning model."
Published Articles
"Healthcare costs in America are seeping into non-healthcare companies’ earnings announcements. The list from a cursory search of one recent week’s public company earnings transcripts includes firms that sell sneakers and tennis rackets, make the dressing for your Caesar salad, deliver flowers to your sweetheart, and provide services to oil companies."
When Employee Healthcare Costs Move Stocks
"Being over-insured means you’re financial divorced from both the short-term cost and the impact of long-term health decisions."
It's Time We Rethink Health Insurance
"In healthcare, brokers help most companies buy, manage, and choose healthcare plans. But, judging by rates of change, spending trends, and objectivity, it’s debatable where they’re adding value and how keen their eye is for innovation."
The Value of Health Insurance Brokers
"While incentives and penalties are effective at getting people to complete health risk assessments, the assessments do not lower costs or increase wellness."
Kaiser Survey Data Offer More Reasons to Rethink Health Risk Assessments
