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Doctor Only Accepts Cash
Health care in this country is going to go one of two ways: Way number one involves government control and long waits for service. The second way looks a lot more like the “good-old-days”:
Dr. Susan Rutten Wasson sits on the corner of a bed in the cramped bedroom of Alice Johnson, a 91-year-old Osakis resident everyone calls “Grandma Alice.” She’s examining Johnson’s arm, which is swollen, she’s determined, because of a tight sleeve cuff.
Also in the room are Alice’s daughter, Ione, and granddaughter, Anne, who lives downstairs in the farmhouse Johnson has occupied for decades. A Rottweiler mix as big as a Shetland licks the face of 18-month-old Sarah, Rutten Wasson’s daughter, who sits on the doctor’s lap.
It’s more a scene from the days of frontier medicine than from the modern health care system. And that’s because Rutten Wasson, 42, is a throwback to a time before HMOs, electronic health records and hospitals with fountains in their lobbies. She sees patients the same day they call if she’s not booked up, spends at least a half-hour per visit — compared to the more typical 15 minutes — and usually charges only $50 for a consultation. She takes cash or check, but no insurance — and sometimes accepts gratuities of a dozen fresh eggs or a pie.
Either way, there are going to be a lot of new opportunities for observant entrepreneurs.
Photo by desrie.govender.
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Angela Shupe on June 22nd, 2011 11:50 am
I agree, I think this is the future for doctors. $50 isn’t bad for a consultation, either. I am surprised she only takes cash and check, though. I bet she would attract more people if she also accepted credit, especially since making a credit card sale only requires an iPhone now-a-days.
Classifieds on June 23rd, 2011 5:50 am
I do not think that everything is so flatly and there are only two ways in health care. I will delight any innovations in this area, any new (or well forgotten) forms of providing health care that will allow them to compete with the established system, bureaucratic and inflexible
Michelle on July 13th, 2011 6:47 pm
I work for a doctor in Bellevue WA who is not contracted with any insurance companies, all payments are due at the time of service. We have Zero Accounts Receivable, no extra staff devoted to billing and chasing payments and authorizations from insurance companies. We are able to pass along the significant savings to our patients in the form of low fees for services. We are members of the non-profit SimpleCare, our patients who are members receive an even lower rate than those who send in their superbills for reimbursement for out of network benefits. My doctor is free to treat his patients real issues, not what the insurance companies will allow payment for. He loves being a doc again.
It makes no sense to pay high monthly premiums to mega profitable insurance companies, yet most Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that’s how you get the best healthcare at little to no cost to them. Thats so ignorant! What they dont calculate is that some of the hundreds of dollars paid each month by their employer could be paid to them in their paycheck.
In reality, high deductible catastrophic plans with an HSA attached cost far less in the long run,especially for those who only see a health provider a couple times per year.
Kudos to those of you who choose to see doctors like the one I work for and support freedom of choice in healthcare and not contributing to the massive profits of insurance executives.
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