From Reuters:
A Seattle clinic for people fed up with insurance, started by doctors fed up with insurance, has gotten $4 million in private venture capital money to expand, it announced on Monday.
Qliance says it has a profit-making solution to the problems of long waits, rushed doctors and cursory care that bother patients, at the same time that it eliminates the paperwork and pressure that plague primary care doctors.
"If you spent five minutes in my office you would notice there is nobody waiting. We don't have to stack them up like jets over Newark," said Garrison Bliss, a doctor and co-founder of the primary care clinic.
The new venture funding comes from Second Avenue Partners with participation by New Atlantic Ventures and Clear Fir Partners, bringing total capital raised to about $7.5 million.
Co-founder Norm Wu said per-patient revenue is triple that of insurance-based clinics. He said many costs are fixed so the firm, now losing money, will turn to profit as business grows.
More than 50 noninsurance clinics operate in 18 U.S. states, based on different business models, Wu noted.
The backers believe Qliance can grow very profitable, and the clinic uses stock options to attract new doctors. The next step is to open a suburban office.
And the charges to the patients:
Qliance customers pay $99 to join, then a flat monthly rate of $39 to $119, depending on age and level of service. Patients can quit without notice and no one is rejected for pre-existing conditions.
Patients must go to outside brokers and qualify medically to buy catastrophic care. One broker said a 30-year-old could expect to pay $133 per month for such care, and a 60-year-old nearly $400, plus substantial deductibles.
Qliance patients get unrestricted round-the-clock primary care access and 30-minute appointments.
And Dr. Garrison Bliss said this about insurance companies:
"Why would a doctor not want to see sick people? That doesn't make sense, unless you're an insurance company," Bliss said.
He rejected the idea that unrestricted access causes overuse, calling that "nonsense promoted by insurance companies .... There's nobody I've ever met who gets their pleasure by seeing doctors."
Bliss said dumping rigid, convoluted insurance requirements and paperwork saves large amounts of money.
This just goes to show you that the prices paid for healthcare are much higher because of insurance companies. Take out the middle man and you can still get good healthcare at more reasonable prices.
As a side note, I do think that doctors must start policing themselves. If they do that the amount of their liability insurance would go down. And it would root out the bad doctors.
4 comments:
This is a positive step forward.
Something like this was started on the east Coast but the state insurance authorities shut it down. The doctor was trying to get 1200$ a year from his patients so that he could afford to give them alot of care for the money. The authorities said he wasn't a licensed insurance company.
As a medic in the Air Force I spent my whole time either working in the ER or running clinics in Peds, Minor Surgery, Orotho and Dermatology. We primarily dealt with dependents. The doctors we had were top notch and we provided excellent health care.
What makes military medicine work is you have nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medics all participating in giving care. Doctors typically see more patients because they can be freed of the routine stuff and see more patients.
While you may not have the top shelf so called Cadillac type equipment and services, that doesn't mean you don't get quality medical care that stresses prevention and detection over doing whatever the current hot procedure/drug that really isn't needed.
I'm glad to see there are folks out there going it alone and trying new delivery methods.
My new favorite quote "Why would a doctor not want to see sick people? That doesn't make sense, unless you're an insurance company"
What makes military medicine work is you have nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medics all participating in giving care. Doctors typically see more patients because they can be freed of the routine stuff and see more patients.
That's a very good point. I think the AMA has been a little too effective in their long PR campaign to persuade people that only a genuine allopathic doctor can help them. Personally, I have gotten such good and thoughtful care and advice from nurses (and other practioners) that I wonder why or even if I need to see a doctor every time I have a health problem. I think not.
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