An idea so simple, it just might work – An antidote for Obamacare: Cash only medicine with transparent pricing and no insurance – the future of medicine? – AEI

How does Clinica Mi Pueblo offer these medial services at the “most affordable prices possible”? Here’s how: the clinic operates on a cash-only basis, with transparent prices that are listed both on the clinic’s website and on the wall at each clinic. Further, the clinic accepts no insurance, and it will not submit insurance claims on patients’ behalf. If patients have insurance, they can easily take the paperwork the clinic provides and file an insurance claim on their own. Reducing the costly, time-consuming mountain of paperwork associated with insurance, Medicare and Medicaid is one of the main reasons that cash-only medical clinics can keep their costs down and prices so low and affordable. That’s the same business model that keeps surgery costs so low/affordable at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, the “free market-loving, price-displaying, state-of-the-art, AAAHC accredited, doctor owned, multi-specialty surgical facility in central OK” that has been featured on CD many times over the years.

We need more of this. One offshoot of this is the Direct Primary Care business model which I have posted about, however that only addresses primary care. Facilites such as Clinica Mi Pueblo and the Surgery Center of Oklahoma address a much broader range of needs. I’m not sure what the pain threshold is such that doctors start doing more of this, but we’ve got to be close. Mountains of paperwork, selling their practices to large conglomerates… that seems to be a changing landscape that would make going to work everyday less fun.