If you went back 60+ years ago, a doctor’s practice might look like this: solo practitioner, spouse worked the front desk, maybe one other staff member, maybe not.
Small office, low patient volume, house calls sometimes.
Patients paid cash.
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There was only major medical insurance that you would use if you needed to go to the hospital.
The doc just wouldn’t take it.
Doctors would spend time with their patients because that is what the model allowed. Good medicine is time dependent.
The model still works!
Doctors would spend time with their patients because that is what the model allowed. Good medicine is time dependent. Click To Tweet
It is just completely incompatible with insurance billing.
As a physician, if you can free yourself from insurance billing you can move to a much simpler model than the beast that we know today.
It doesn’t seem possible, but it still works!
Of course you can add a modern twist to it through advanced technology. For example, I bring an ultrasound around with me and communicate with my patients through text.
The heart of the model is still the same.
Relationship based practice that values everyone’s time with no middleman.
60+ years ago there weren’t any middlemen.
Today there are more middlemen than anyone else. The challenge is cutting them all out.
It can be done and many physicians are doing it.
