Comments on: Prepaid Medical Service: An Interesting Business Model

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:01:27 +0000

That’s the way it seems to me (both points), and it seems to be an innovation. Have individual physicians or small practices used similar business models in the past? If they have, I would be interested to know the circumstances and how well it worked.

By: MD

MD — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:42:11 +0000

But isn’t this just managed care writ small? Perhaps it’s the ‘writ small’ that’s the important part of it.

By: david still

david still — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:59:15 +0000

For my cell phone plan, there is a monthly fee but there are charges on top of my allotted fees for time beyond what I have signed up for–it is not,then, a real flat fee entirely.

As for the medical plan, I assume the doctor is a general doctor, an internist. Wha he does then for complicated (iel expensive) cases is to send you on to a specialist, and then does the patient pay addtionaly?

By: Mrs. Davis

Mrs. Davis — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:53:27 +0000

For a monthly fee of $83 per individual or $125 for a family, the clinic provides unlimited primary and urgent care. Those who enroll in the prepaid plan get office visits, lab work, X-rays and as many generic drugs as the clinic can provide.

This is just backward integration into the insurance business by the primary care provider. What’s interesting is that the $83 per individual seems a bit low but not extraordinarily so. But the $125 per family is a real bargain.

It would be interesting to read the fine print about when the physician can dump a patient.

This would be a great way to go for people who have an HSA and it would be an interesting way for HSA providers to integrate forward into providing care.