SIX Major Disadvantages of Insurance Involvement in Primary Care

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Involvement in Primary Care
Virtually everyone understands the importance of major medical insurance as it relates to unexpected high-dollar care for severe injuries and significant medical conditions, but the value equation for health insurance is quite different when applied to coverage for primary care services. The full potential cost for primary care services is neither expensive nor unpredictable. Routine and preventive care as well as the management of most acute illness and the majority of chronic disease processes by primary care physicians would be quite affordable for most Americans even if they had no health insurance at all. In fact, the involvement of health insurance in the relationship between patients and their primary care physicians introduces several major challenges and disadvantages.

Here are the six primary areas of concern.
1. Non-Value-Added Middlemen Insurance involvement makes primary care more expensive. It is estimated that as much as 40% of revenue paid to primary care physicians who participate with major health insurance goes to pay for administrative overhead, claims processing, insurance company profits, and the compensation of insurance brokers. This list of middlemen who mediate the interactions and care that you receive from your doctor do not actually add value to your quality of care or patient experience. They do add significant costs for your doctor, your employer, and ultimately you. In reality, inserting these middlemen between you and your doctor makes it more challenging for doctors to do their job.
Who pays your doctor? The answer makes all the difference to your access and customer service. So who pays your doctor? Your insurance company. Realistically, your doctor doesn’t work for you. They work for your insurance company and spend a lot of time and money meeting their requirements. This insurance
middleman increases your cost, kills convenience, and leads to poor health. Ask yourself how your care would be different if you and your physician weren’t paying for these middlemen and your doctor wasn’t working, in a manner of speaking, for your insurance company.

2. Volume-Based Care
When the delivery of healthcare services is adjudicated by insurance on a fee-for-service basis, your care is volume-based. Every service you receive, including lab work, other diagnostic The Effects of Insurance Involvement on Primary Care tests, all treatments, examinations, discussions, and time with your doctor, only happens if these services are individually deemed covered and reimbursable by your insurance plan.
For physicians practicing under this (nearly universal) model, they are only paid if they are able to justify each individual service they render with codes (CPT procedure codes for specific ICD-10 diagnostic codes) and documentation that are acceptable to the insurance carrier. The amount your doctor is paid on a fee-for-service basis is locked and predetermined by a provider contract between your doctor and your insurance company. Given the ever-increasing administrative and regulatory costs to operate a medical practice, the only way participating providers can sustain practice viability is by increasing the volume of patients they see. This dynamic of volume-based care is the main reason that primary care physicians are always rushed and access to care is limited, causing poor patient experience, worse health outcomes, and more downstream expense (as previously noted).

3. Misaligned Incentives
Why do doctors do what they do? Why do they require the visits that they do? Why do they order the tests that they order? The treatments? Make the referrals they make? Medical doctors are regularly found to be among the most trustworthy professions (second only to nurses), but the vast majority of doctors practice in an environment that incentivizes them to ingratiate themselves by their ordering practices. Whether self-employed or working under employment agreements with medical practices that are most often owned by hospital systems, your doctor’s take-home pay is largely determined by what the doctor’s office bills. Just as volume-based care adds costs to the system, these misaligned incentives between you, your insurance company, and the ordering physician also add to the number of medical services
that are performed. Not only is physician compensation tied to the volume of patient visits that the doctor is able to accommodate into an overly busy schedule, but physicians may also be reimbursed directly or indirectly based on the number of ancillary services they order. These ancillary services include blood tests, other diagnostic tests, and treatments that they deliver in their office or through affiliated entities.
Hospitals, specifically, benefit greatly from the downstream medical care that is referred to their facilities by primary care physicians working directly for hospital-owned medical practices. This is the reason that their employment agreements typically compensate them based on their ordering practices. In this insurance-based fee-for-service system, even the most altruistic physicians may be ordering office visits, tests, treatments, and referrals that are questionable or altogether unnecessary. Your doctor’s incentives are rarely ever actually in line with yours.

4. Noncovered Services
There is another side to the coin. The ubiquitous volume based, insurance-participating fee-for-service primary care practice model also may result in under delivery of important medical services. Some important diagnostic and treatment services are deemed to be noncovered in certain situations. If your insurance carrier is unwilling to reimburse your doctor for a test or treatment that the doctor feels is important, the doctor will be less likely to recommend it. Physicians often The Effects of Insurance involvement on Primary Care know or can determine via a prior authorization process if your specific insurance plan will cover a test or treatment that they are considering. If insurance is not willing to cover the procedure (or if it would be subject to a very high deductible and out-of pocket expense to the patient), your doctor may choose not to recommend the procedure due to concern about your direct expense or fear that they may not collect payment at all. This is an example of the common reality that your doctor doesn’t work for you but is beholden to your insurance company. They are conditioned that if insurance will not pay for a service, they “can’t” order it. As you can imagine, this mindset has great potential to result in a compromise to the quality of patient care.

5. Hidden True Patient Costs
Health insurance is a shell game. The true costs of healthcare services and the mark-up at each step in the system of delivery are well hidden. What does a service cost your doctor or the medical office to provide? What does it cost your employer? The insurance company? As a patient or covered member, you may never know. Eventually, you will find out what it will cost you personally—but not until well after you have received the service. The complexity and multiple middlemen involved in health insurance pricing, repricing, and reimbursement currently make it nearly impossible for individuals to determine the real costs for medical services that they receive. Insurance premiums continue to skyrocket. Employers “share”
an increasing amount and percentage of these premiums with their employees who are also left with higher out-of-pocket expenses from rising deductibles and copayments for all types of medical services.
In some cases, especially with services provided and ordered by primary care physicians, it is possible to identify true market-based cash prices. What would certain medical services (office visits, lab tests, x-rays, MRIs, prescription medications, for example) cost if you didn’t have insurance at all? It is fairly common for out-of-pocket payments for diagnostic and treatment services that are delivered by primary care physicians and filed with health insurance to exceed the market-based cash prices that could be paid (without insurance involvement) for the same services. The fact is, most patients never know it when their health insurance is delivering a penalty rather than a financial benefit. Historically, these disparities have not been disclosed by insurers. This longstanding industry practice leaves most patients overpaying for
some medical services on a regular basis.

6. Deterrents to Care
Health insurance is designed to limit how often and how quickly people go to the doctor. This is particularly true with primary care. Copayments, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket expenses built into insurance plans have proven to deter patients from seeking timely and appropriate primary care. As health
insurance has become increasingly expensive, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs have increased in order to keep premiums from rising even higher. When accessing most primary care services, patients pay first before their insurance kicks in. They are paying directly for more routine primary care services and become increasingly likely to postpone or avoid needed care.

The Effects of Insurance Involvement on Primary Care

According to a recent survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by 20|20 Research, 64% of Americans say they have avoided or delayed medical care in the last year due to expected costs. These costly insurance plan design mechanisms along with the other inefficiencies created by insurance involvement in your relationship with your doctor deter access to medical care that is otherwise uniquely available to people across our country.

Five Benefits of a Primary Care Relationship

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Medical doctors practicing as primary care physicians (PCPs) are the only physicians who deliver all of the following five major benefits of a primary care relationship to their patients. All five of these aspects of care are required for any person to receive well-coordinated overall medical and preventive care with a high level of continuity of care in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.

What are these five benefits and why are they necessary for the best quality healthcare?

1.   Address the Vast Majority of Healthcare Needs

Primary care physicians are able to address and solely manage the vast majority of healthcare needs. In a study in JAMA Internal Medicine (2012), researchers estimated that more than 90% of concerns that are brought to primary care doctors are successfully dealt with without the need for referral to any specialist physician. Due to the broad training and scope of practice of primary care physicians, most personal health needs are appropriately and efficiently handled by a patient’s primary care physician.

As the first point of contact, primary care physicians initially address all problems and health questions that patients may have. While it is unfortunately not common knowledge in the general public, primary care physicians have no restriction as to the problems or organ systems that they address, and they are comfortable diagnosing and treating acute illnesses, chronic disease processes, and the most common injuries.

Primary care physicians are experts in all common physical, mental, emotional, and social concerns. They have the appropriate training to manage a large majority of problems in their offices and only involve specialists for further evaluation or treatment when requested by the patient or when it is deemed necessary by the physician and in the best interest of the patient.

2.   Provide Continuity and Accountability

Primary care physicians uniquely provide continuity of medical care and accountability to their patients for their current and long-term health. Specifically, this benefit of primary care is the continuity that comes from an ongoing relationship and rapport with a physician who knows their patients’ entire health and personal history. Over multiple years treating the patient, the physician develops a context for optimal care and possesses an accumulated personal health record to better evaluate each new concern and manage any chronic conditions.

As, inevitably, patients require some specialty care by other physicians and healthcare providers, their primary physician makes referrals, is aware of the assessments and treatments by the specialists, coordinates care of multiple providers as needed, and (maybe most importantly) serves as a translator for complicated and technical information and medical terminology that specialists may not have time to communicate adequately to the patient.

In addition, the primary care physician assumes a proactive role of responsibility and accountability for ongoing care and decision-making about their patients’ health, self-care, preventive care, and ongoing medical management. In optimal circumstances decision-making and accountability are shared with the patient in a very real sense. This kind of ongoing relationship with a primary care physician over the years is invaluable and cannot be approximated by isolated encounters with telemedicine or urgent care doctors.

3.   Address Proactive Preventive Care

Primary care physicians know that longevity and quality of life are directly linked to proactive preventive care. Patients who are engaged in a long-term relationship with a primary care physician are more likely to be advised about and pursue healthy lifestyle choices, risk factor reduction measures, and timely screening for hidden medical risks and impending medical conditions. In most cases, these disease prevention and early detection measures have a greater impact on overall health than do interventions for acute illnesses.

HEALTH RISK MODIFICATION: Periodic discussions about health goals with this trusted medical adviser allow patients to understand health risks better and encourage them to make lifestyle choices that are proven to improve quality of life and delay or prevent a myriad of medical disorders. It is common knowledge that tobacco use (smoking, chewing, and now nicotine-containing vaping), excessive alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, poor diet, lack of exercise, and overweight/obesity are the leading modifiable risk factors for disease and premature death.

Doctors know that pills are easy and lifestyle changes are hard. The value that primary care physicians provide are centered around personalized explanations about the reasons that healthy lifestyle prolongs life, the importance and impact of patients’ choices, advice on practical tips to making change happen, and repeated encouragement over time.

TIMELY PREVENTIVE SCREENINGS: Another major area of preventive care is screening for hidden disease and risk. The primary care physician advises and reminds patients concerning preventive screening guidelines that, when followed, result in early detection of disease and improved health outcomes.

Research has shown that regular primary care visits are associated with an increase in recommended preventive interventions including an increase of 127% for vaccinations, 122% for colonoscopy, and 75% for mammography. Many categories of health screenings are recommended based on the patient’s age and existing risks. Screenings of patients who are completely without symptoms frequently uncover issues related to virtually every organ system and significant medical conditions. People who do not undergo these screenings often have advanced issues including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, metabolic conditions, and countless other potentially life-threatening problems by the time symptoms are present and diagnosed.

4.   Help Patients Navigate the Healthcare System

The American healthcare system is complex and confusing. Individuals who have a reliable relationship with and timely access to a primary care physician are more likely to utilize healthcare services appropriately, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Utilizing their primary care physician as a health services concierge, they are less likely to require secondary care from specialists including emergency room visits, urgent care, telemedicine services (with an unknown doctor/nurse), or care delivered by various specialist physicians.

Patients who first consulted their primary care physician are also felt to have utilized emergency department care less often for COVID-19 concerns. The physician educates their patients about recommended facilities for ancillary services (imaging, physical therapy, sleep labs, for example) and advises them about cost-effective approaches to purchasing prescription medications, among other health-related direction.

There is an alarming variation in prices for medical services among various facilities. Imaging studies such as x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs may often be obtained for cash prices that are significantly less than many patients’ copayments under their insurance plans. And simply by making effective prescription medication choices and coaching their patients on how to receive discounted cash pricing on their medications, primary care physicians may save their patients more than the total cost the physician charges for delivering their care.

5.   Provide Better Health with Lower Cost

Reliable access to primary care has proven to result in improved health outcomes and overall healthcare cost savings. Better access to primary care and a greater number of primary care physicians in a geographic area are associated with improved health status and lower mortality rates.

Multiple studies performed across the United States have shown a consistent relationship between the ratio of primary care physicians to the population as the only consistent predictor of age-specific mortality rates, and mortality associated with cancer, heart disease, neonatal mortality, and life expectancy.

While delivering improved health outcomes, primary care is widely recognized to simultaneously reduce overall healthcare costs by means of all the benefits listed in this chapter. Healthcare costs go down when medical conditions are detected early and managed efficiently by primary care physicians. Costs also go down when unnecessary overutilization of expensive specialty and emergency care is contained or eliminated and when care is delivered by the least expensive medical providers and institutions. Primary care is inherently less expensive than the care delivered by specialty physicians and institutions that provide secondary and specialty care.

Open House on Wednesday, October 25th from 4-6pm

We hope you can make it!

Do you like your doctor?

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Do you like your doctor? For the vast majority of people, it is simply not enough that their doctor is knowledgeable and experienced at treating their medical conditions. It also doesn’t matter if they are one of the rare doctors who can be highly accessible and available whenever you need them if you don’t “like” them. A positive patient experience and high level of satisfaction has been shown to be more closely related to the relationship that someone has with their doctor than any other determinant.

Do I like this doctor? may be the most important question someone can ask when screening for a primary care physician. The bedside manner, personality, and communication skills of the doctor will reveal their level of interest in their patients and, therefore, the amount of effort they are likely to put forth in building a relationship of trust with you. This interest along with excellent communication skills and a propensity to educate their patients results in more time with each patient. More time leads to better understanding of their situations, more accurate diagnoses, better explanations, and greater clarity about recommendations.

Does the doctor seem to respect their patients and partner with them in decision-making or do they dictate action plans or belittle their patient’s ideas and questions? How do you define a good working relationship with a doctor?

You wouldn’t hire a handyman, a lawn service, or any other employee without an interview. You should not be expected to commit to a doctor-patient relationship with a primary care physician that you intend to stay with for a long time without first being given the opportunity to talk with them. Anyone looking for a new primary care physician should ask the medical practice for an opportunity to meet the physician to get to know them and their approach to patients before committing to ongoing care at that practice.

Forward-thinking medical practices will allow you some kind of no-obligation visit for this purpose. (But don’t expect to receive medical advice or services without paying for them.) Most people are able to draw a conclusion quickly about the doctor’s communication skills, demeanor, patience, and bedside manner, if simply given the opportunity to meet and interview the physician candidate.

Without this important step, many people end up wasting time jumping from doctor to doctor each time they have a medical need before landing with one that they actually like. Very inefficient. If you are in need of a new primary care physician, ask to meet the doctor for this purpose before being seen for any medical needs.

Shortage of Primary Care Physicians

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Shortage of Primary Care Physicians

America is experiencing a shortage of primary care physicians. You may have experienced this in delays in access, long wait times, rushed appointments, physician sentiment concerning their practices, and complaints from the general public that they find it difficult to find a doctor.

Research conducted in September 2019 by Public Opinion Strategies indicated that 35% of respondents had trouble finding a doctor over the preceding three years and, according to a 2017 study by Merritt Hawkins, the national average cumulative wait time to schedule a new patient-physician appointment is twenty-four days—the longest it has been since the survey began in 2004.

The rapid expansion of physician extenders or midlevel providers across the country is further evidence of a demand for medical services that substantially exceeds the capacity of our currently licensed physician workforce. Nonphysician providers are typically trained and licensed as physician assistants and nurse practitioners who provide care under the supervision of physicians.

There are currently over 325,000 nurse practitioners (NPs) and more than 115,000 Certified Physician Assistants (PAs) practicing in the United States. Of these, about 27% of PAs and 75% of NPs are providing primary care services. That equates to about 275,000 midlevel providers, which is nearly as many as the 299,000 practicing primary care physicians.

Prior to the rise of COVID-19, the magnitude of the primary care physician shortage had been estimated at 55,000 physicians nationwide by 2033. In addition to the recent effect that the pandemic has had on disruption of primary care, the main drivers of this shortage are an aging population, accelerated physician retirement, and a low percentage of new physicians choosing to specialize in primary care.

Demographics

The US population aged sixty-five and older is projected to grow by 45.1% by the year 2033. As our elderly population continues to grow, the demand for general and specialty physician care is also expected to increase dramatically. It is self-apparent that the older we get, the more likely we are to require healthcare services. Older adults use far more healthcare services than younger adults and children.

The diagnosis of serious or chronic health problems increases with age and is directly associated with higher per capita healthcare costs. Specifically, people over the age of fifty-five make up 29% of the population but account for 56% of all health spending. The declining health and increasing healthcare costs that occur with age increase the workload for physicians practicing primary care and also for specialist physicians. To compound matters, at the same time that patients are aging and requiring more care, their physicians are aging and may be less able to deliver the same volume of care.

Physician Retirement

The baby boomers are retiring. Baby boomer physicians are now retiring at an accelerated rate. Greater than 40% of currently active physicians will be at traditional retirement age of sixty-five or older within the next decade, including myself, at the same time that baby boomer patients are requiring more care. Additionally, physician surveys indicate that 31.6% of practicing primary care physicians are currently experiencing anxiety, withdrawal, and burnout, which is likely to result in significantly earlier retirement than has occurred historically.

There seems to also be an ongoing effect of COVID-19 on physician practice patterns and their attitudes about retirement. The added stresses and financial concerns that have occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic have led some primary care physicians to early retirement—yet another unexpected consequence of the pandemic. A survey of primary care physicians conducted in September 2020 indicated that 19% of respondents experienced physicians in their practice retiring or planning to retire due directly to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fewer Physicians Choosing Primary Care

At the same time that older physicians are retiring (some earlier than expected), new physicians are not choosing primary care. Physicians graduating from medical school have a lot of options when it comes to choosing an area of medicine to pursue as their career. Their interests, lifestyles, work-life balance, and income are greatly impacted by this choice.

The number and percentage of medical school graduates who are pursuing careers in primary care have dropped dramatically over the past thirty years. From 1997 to 2005, the number of US medical graduates entering family medicine residencies dropped by 50%, and according to the 2019 Residency Match Report, only 41% of available internal medicine residency positions were filled by MD students graduating from US medical schools. Similar trends were seen in family medicine and pediatrics. The percentage of active physicians practicing primary care in the US has decreased from 50% in 1961 to less than 32% in 2019.

The financial ramifications of choosing a career in primary care are a significant factor in the declining interest in primary care careers. There is a substantial compensation gap between primary care and specialty physicians. The highest earning specialist physicians average twice the annual salary of primary care physicians. This, in conjunction with the significantly increasing cost of medical education, has made primary care relatively unattractive from a financial standpoint.

Physicians simply do not wish to accept lower salaries and income when faced with a quarter of a million dollars in medical school debt.

From our Dietician, Mary Jo

Dietician’s Update from MARY JO MASON, RDN, CDCES

September is ‘Family Meals’ month. Family means different things to different people. Your family may include others in your home, work, play or have 2 legs or more! Studies show people who eat meals with others consume more fruits and vegetables and tend to have better nutrition in general. They also have more connection with each other which decreases stress and that aids digestion. (See conversation starters below). Better digestion = better health. So, it all comes full circle!

Of course, having busy schedules and being pulled in many directions can make it difficult to have elaborate sit-down meals every day. That’s okay. Try this recipe for a meal that comes together in a hurry without tossing out good-for-you nutrition.

Sheet Pan Maple Dijon Pork Chops

Perfect for a cool fall evening. Use other veggies as desired (beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower…).

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 1-inch pork loin chops, bone-in

2 cups Brussels sprouts, washed and cut in half

2 sweet potatoes, peeled, washed and cut into 1-inch cubes

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. Line a sheet pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and lightly grease with olive oil

3. Place pork chops on pan

4. Place veggies in zip lock bag. Drizzle with remaining oil and toss to coat. Spread on pan

5. Spread Dijon mustard evenly on pork chops, then drizzle maple syrup over chops and veggies

6. Mix salt, pepper garlic powder and rosemary together and then sprinkle over chops and veggies

7. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring vegetables occasionally, or until pork chops reach internal temperature of 160 degrees

Try these ideas for mealtime conversation starters:

Take turns bringing a new word to the table and guessing the meaning.

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Tell me about a time when you were: scared, happy, proud, confident, smart, speechless…

What is your favorite book, show, song, artist, saying and why?

ProPartners featured in Look to Leawood Magazine's Spring edition

ProPartners Healthcare has spent the last twenty plus years serving the Leawood Community and looks forward to the future serving even more people in the greater Kansas City area with their unique and improved model of healthcare.

They’ve been a part of the Leawood business community this whole time, and when their lease came up, they choose to remain in town. Founder and Medical Director, Dr Troy Burns, MD, said opening and keeping the company based in Leawood after 22 years has been a great decision.

“Our location is an advantage because we are in a residential community,” said Dr. Burns. “So we have a lot of patients who live in the area and they know us. And so they’re very comfortable with coming to see us.”

The office was originally opened as a primary care practice for men. Since 2013, ProPartners has expanded into a family practice providing comprehensive Direct Primary Care (DPC) services for an affordable flat monthly fee. As one of the first fifty DPC practices in the country ProPartners DPC practice model has been proven to improve the quality of care, increase patient satisfaction and reduce overall healthcare costs.

Since 2001, they have partnered with employers to improve the health of their employees by guaranteeing direct access to their personal ProPartners primary care physician, at any time of day.

ProPartners model guarantees that patients will have access to their doctor directly. Typical insurance models that have doctors who are responsible for thousands of patients, making it difficult for patients to get in depth care based on an ongoing relationship. Employees highly value the peace of mind that comes from knowing that their doctor is always available. There are never any office visit charges, copayments or deductibles.

“Our flat membership fee gives our patients unrestricted access. It is always your doctor on call for you. You are not getting a random physician who you’ve never met,” Dr. Burns said. “Even if you call at two in the morning or 10 at night, you’re calling your own doctor that has a context of care for you.”

DPC models are so rare that patients are amazed by the service they receive with this kind of healthcare. Many people experience healthcare as an expensive and inconvenient endeavor, being limited to in-network doctors, long waits, and unexpected out-of-pocket expenses.

By contrast, the DPC model allows patients to always reach their doctor for any questions or concerns. Since the physicians at ProPartners are not responsible for thousands of patients, they can address ongoing health concerns and make plans to prevent future ailments.

So while firmly anchored in Leawood, the office serves patients from neighboring communities like Liberty, Shanee, Overland Park, and Lenexa. Dr. Burns contributes this to patients’ willingness to go out of their way for ProPartners distinctive care.

“We are also conveniently located near several shopping centers, restaurants and grocery stores,” Dr. Burns said. “We are unique, we do things differently than other practices. So, they are willing to make the drive.”

What is Primary Care?

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Americans receive medical care in many ways. Too often in the United States, the delivery of healthcare is done in a manner that is piecemeal, inefficient, and unnecessarily expensive. It is not uncommon for people to receive initial care from multiple providers in disparate medical practice settings and institutions. They may go to urgent care walk-in clinics as their primary first stop for illnesses and emergency departments at hospitals for even minor injuries. In addition, they may see a cardiologist for their high blood pressure, an endocrinologist for simple type 2 diabetes, an allergist for seasonal allergies, and an orthopedist for chronic knee pain. It is also increasingly common for people to utilize some kind of telemedicine service, which puts them on the phone or a video call with a physician they have never met to address an acute medical concern. In this example alone, a patient without a primary care physician may be seeing seven different physicians and medical groups for very common and routine conditions. As you might imagine, this widely dispersed care is inefficient,
costly, and creates a situation that makes it nearly impossible for providers to smoothly coordinate the patient’s care.

There is a better way—a first stop for all medical questions and needs. A medical home where the majority of medical concerns are diagnosed and treated by a single physician and where any specialty care that is required is coordinated on behalf of the patient. Primary care physicians or PCPs are the doctors who fulfill this role for their patients. They are most often trained in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, or general practice and are well-equipped to handle the majority of health issues that patients may have. They are also alert to triage or refer their patients to any number of other physician specialists when needs arise. Not surprisingly, common things occur commonly. Primary care physicians “specialize” in common conditions and health needs.

A discussion of the value of primary healthcare must begin with a definition of the practice. A functional definition is found in a text by Cruz-Cunha and associates:
Primary care involves the widest scope of healthcare, including all ages of patients, patients of all socioeconomic and geographic origins, patients seeking to maintain optimal health, and patients with all manner of acute and chronic physical, mental
and social health issues, including multiple chronic diseases. Consequently, a primary care practitioner must possess a wide breadth of knowledge in many areas. Continuity is a key characteristic of primary care, as patients usually prefer to consult the same
practitioner for routine check-ups and preventive care, health education, and every time they require an initial consultation about a new health problem. Collaboration among providers is a desirable characteristic of primary care.

Primary care is generally accepted to be the foundation of any effective healthcare system. Effective and efficient healthcare begins with a single primary physician who has an ongoing relationship with the patient, a detailed knowledge of their medical and personal history over time, and is trusted by the patient to be the first source of information, advice, diagnosis, and treatment of their health needs. In the context
of this relationship, patients are statistically more likely to receive timely preventive screenings, early detection and treatment of diseases, and well-balanced health education and are more likely to be encouraged in lifestyle modification and healthy lifestyle. Primary care improves health, prevents illness and death, and is also associated with a more equitable distribution of health in populations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with primary care relationships were better able to receive appropriate medical care, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 infection and had a medical consultant to explain confusing mitigation guidance and
mandates as questions arose. Primary care physicians also serve as a medical home for their patients, referring and coordinating consultations of specialists and explaining/interpreting the recommendations of these specialists to their patients.

E.R. (do you need it?)

According to the CDC, there are approximately 35 million injury-related visits to US emergency departments each year. That’s 27% of all ER visits. While many of these injuries may have been best managed in other settings such as primary care offices or urgent care walk-in clinics, the most severe and obvious traumas are handled at hospital-based emergency departments. 

If you have a true traumatic injury that immediately debilitates you or that you or others around you believe could be life-threatening (let’s say a broken leg or hip or you’re unconscious from a fall or something involving loss of blood), you are calling an ambulance or being taken to the ER. This is the most obvious situation that requires true emergency care immediately and is more likely to require a surgical treatment or hospitalization. 

Fortunately, in most of the US everyone will be treated emergently at highly qualified trauma centers without regard to insurance or ability to pay. Treatment now happens reliably in these circumstances and occurs in the only appropriate setting. 

Unfortunately, many of the 35 million ER visits for injuries do not require the high-level trauma and emergency services that are available at a hospital emergency department and therefore result in many unnecessary and expensive trips to the ER. The most common unnecessary ER visits are for pain. The vast majority of people with headaches, back pain, toothaches, and sore throats should find a better and more cost-effective way to get help. A portion of these unnecessary ER visits seemed necessary to individuals because they could not reach their personal physician or their doctor could not accommodate them into their schedule immediately or on the same day. They simply did not know where else to go for timely care.

Most acute injuries do not require care at the emergency department of a hospital but often need to be addressed by a doctor on the same day that they occur. Each year in the US there are an additional 39.5 million doctors’ office visits for injuries. Acute injuries like sprains, strains, lacerations, abrasions, bruises, many broken bones, concussions and other injuries from falls, collisions, bicycle accidents, equipment injuries, and more may be serious and require urgent treatment by a doctor but are handled more efficiently and cost-effectively in the ambulatory care setting of a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/emergency-department.htm

Build Your Company Benefits From The Care Up

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Let’s look at healthcare and health insurance from the employer’s perspective.

If you are a business owner, executive, middle manager, human resources specialist, or otherwise have budgetary responsibility at your company, the following insights should be helpful to your understanding of this important aspect of your business.

At the end of the day, every business is a healthcare business. Health benefits are typically the second or third largest line item in a company’s budget, so your healthcare business is indeed big business.

Businesses spend so much on health insurance for several reasons. Primarily, because it’s expected. The employer mandate contained within the Affordable Care Act requires all businesses with fifty or more full-time employees to provide affordable insurance that meets minimum requirements or face hefty penalties. Health insurance coverage is also expected by employees, regardless of whether or not their employer is legally required to provide it. This employee benefit is nearly essential in order to attract and retain high-quality employees for the long run. The quality of health coverage and the direct cost to employees matter to them. A generous benefits package that offers health insurance with good coverage and doesn’t cost employees too much out of their paychecks or pocket is attractive during recruiting and has been shown to be a significant factor in employee longevity with their employer.

The COVID-19 pandemic also created new pressures on employers. In addition to shaky revenue and new expenses, there have been new operational challenges, a shift to remote work, and a pivot of business offerings to preserve viability. Initially, employees were worried about keeping their jobs. Now, employers are worried about finding employees who want to work for an acceptable rate of pay. These changes in the available workforce have employers rethinking compensation packages, including health benefits, as a means to attract and keep quality employees in a post-pandemic environment.

Group health insurance is expensive and getting more expensive. I have discussed the current drivers of skyrocketing health insurance prices and what can be done to curtail them. As you might imagine by now, Direct Primary Care can play a significant role in reducing healthcare costs and thereby suppressing health insurance costs while simultaneously creating value and loyalty in employees.

Blood Drive w/ProPartners August 4-6

ProPartners is inviting you to make a life-saving blood donation at a Community Blood Center donor center near you.

The local demand for blood products has rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels, but blood donations remain low. ProPartners wants to help! Donate at any neighborhood donor center from August 4th-6th and give the ProPartners Group Code (EH7I) at registration. 

All ProPartners donors with code EH7I will receive a voucher for our Pint for Pint promotion with breweries on this list.

Appointments are preferred; walk-ins will be accepted as capacity allows.

Find a Donor Center Nearest You

Schedule an appointment by clicking the link above or contact: 

Heide Williams, heide@propartnersmd.com

Remember to bring a photo ID or donor ID card. For questions about eligibility due to travel outside the U.S., medications or medical conditions call 1.800.688.0900. To learn more about the importance of donating at this time and to answer your questions about COVID-19, please visit www.savealifenow.org/coronavirus. 

DONATE TODAY

savealifenow.org | 877.468.6844 

Do you have FAST access to your doctor?

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Direct Primary Care physicians get paid to be available. Patients pay for the peace of mind that their personal doctor will be there when they need them. As previously described, eliminating insurance from the primary care equation decreases the cost of care. This reduction in overhead allows DPC physicians to limit their patient panels to an average of 400 to 800 total patients—less than a third of typical insurance-based primary care physicians who are almost always responsible for more than 2,000 patients. This effectively triples the amount of time DPC physicians have available for each of their patients.

The DPC membership fee guarantees patients that their doctor will be available when needed via quick responses to phone calls, emails, and texts, same-day/next-day appointments, extended length visits, and an unrestricted number of doctor visits. Since each DPC physician is caring for a significantly reduced number of patients, appointments are not rushed, so the doctor has the time to listen and get to know and build a relationship with each patient.

In addition to investing more time in diagnosis and explanation of recommendations, the DPC physician is able to be proactive in following up with each patient and recalling them for periodic disease management, health screening tests, and preventive care. Finally, this additional time devoted to each patient allows the physician to become an advocate and adviser to help their patients to efficiently and cost-effectively navigate a complex American healthcare system.

Another benefit of not having health insurance involved in the relationship between primary care physicians and patients is that it is always clear who the doctor works for. A physician who is paid a flat membership fee by their patients is directly and solely accountable to their patients and is highly motivated to maximize the patients’ health, customer service, and satisfaction. The doctor’s incentive is to maintain high patient satisfaction, which is directly related to fast response times to calls, minimal waiting in the doctor’s office, and better communication during visits and when the patient is not in the office.

Not only are incentives aligned around service quality, but DPC arrangements typically offer at-cost pricing on labs and other in-office testing so there is no incentive for a DPC doctor to ever order a test that the doctor does not believe is absolutely necessary. Doctor and patient are also aligned to avoid unnecessary trips to the doctor’s office and unnecessary referrals as the DPC practice is never compensated on a feefor-service basis for conducting more office visits or referring a patient for care elsewhere.

Sometimes, as a patient, you need answers NOW!

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

People have all kinds of health questions. Some are mere curiosity. Some are general questions about their long-term health. Some relate to nagging symptoms they have had for a long time, but some concerns aren’t so casual, really can’t wait, and require treatment right away.

When you have a pressing medical need, what do you do? Maybe you feel sick, have pain, or just got injured. You need attention immediately. Right now. Acute illnesses and injuries can’t wait. In addition to providing information, a main function of a primary care physician is to provide treatment in a timely manner. You know you need to see a doctor right away. You could just go to the emergency room or an urgent care walk-in clinic, but you wish you could see a doctor that you know and trust—a doctor who knows you. If you could get your doctor on the phone or see them in the office today, you know that would be best.

Just as doctors primarily answer the two vital questions discussed in the first chapter when making recommendations to patients (What’s wrong with me? and What should I do about it?), when it comes to treating them, we also typically do two things: we cut on you or give you pills. Sure, we sometimes tell you what to eat, to get more exercise or lose weight, but for the most part the treatments prescribed by physicians usually boil down to either prescribing medications or performing a surgical procedure.

When you are on your smartphone, no matter what you want to do, there’s an app for that. If you go to the doctor, there’s always a pill for that. Modern medicine has advanced remarkably in our lifetime with the development of complex and precise surgical procedures and prescription medications that treat trauma, chronic diseases, and acute conditions more effectively than anyone would have imagined a few decades ago.

When these “scalpels and pills” are put to work quickly, they routinely save lives. And while this description is a simple reduction of a broad range of medical treatments, starting the appropriate treatment as soon as possible often determines the outcome. The sooner a treatment is begun, the more likely and more quickly you, the patient, are to fully recover.

For most illnesses, escalating medical problems, and acute injuries, when you decide that you need to see a doctor, you want to do it now, not tomorrow or next week. How fast you can get in front of a doctor who can diagnose and treat you makes all the difference. Timely access to your primary care physician usually determines the quality of your care, how quickly you initiate treatment, and consequently how quickly you recover

VOLUME OR VALUE? how does your doctor get paid?

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Insurance-Driven & Value-Based Models

Healthcare costs are out of control and volume-based insurance reimbursement models are felt to be contributing to the problem. Medicare and most major private medical insurance carriers have begun testing and transitioning to reimbursement models that pay for healthcare services based on the quality of care instead of the quantity of services provided. These quality-based or value-based reimbursement models reward healthcare providers for providing the best care possible as efficiently as possible. They also have the effect of shifting some amount of financial risk from the insurance carrier to the healthcare provider.

Physicians, hospitals, and other providers must assume the risk that they will be able to improve the level of care and health outcomes while simultaneously cutting the costs to deliver care. With the aforementioned pressures on primary care practices, assuming risk of reimbursement for services performed is not an easy sell for smaller physician-owned practices but is being adopted by larger primary care practices and many that are owned by hospitals.

Value Proposition

The affordable and high-level access to a personal physician that is promised by the DPC value-based care model is made possible largely due to the elimination of the insurance middleman. The cost to deliver primary care drops significantly when this non-value-added intermediary is removed. The physician and medical practice are able to eliminate all of the time and expenses associated with filing and refiling insurance claims, negotiating disputed claims, balance billing patients, adjusting off unpaid charges, and satisfying the insurance carriers’ complex requirements for documentation and coding in order to be reimbursed.

The immediate result of this simplification is that DPC physicians are able to reduce the number of patients they care for dramatically compared with the patient panel that almost every insurance-participating (volume-based) physician carries, freeing up a significant amount of time to be available to their patient members. This allows them to be highly accessible to their patients by phone, text, or same-day appointment. Under the DPC model, physicians work directly for their patients rather than their patients’ insurance companies and are directly accountable to patients for all decisions and costs related to their medical care. This simplified direct-to-consumer model eliminates the enormous administrative load that is inherent in any reimbursement arrangement being adjudicated by a third-party payer. Even with new value-based payment contracts offered by insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid, the cumulative costs for the organizations involved to calculate and determine payment to providers is substantial. DPC eliminates these expenses. If a patient determines that the value of having enhanced access, availability, and time with their personal primary care doctor is worth the monthly membership fee, they stay with the DPC practice. If not, they don’t. The accountability is immediate, and the value is in the eye of the customer—who is also the payer!

Why we stayed with ProPartners

While we aren't allowed to share this patient's name for legal reasons, we thank them for allowing us to share this personal journey.

I started at ProPartners when it was for men only and continued on as a patient when it went to the Direct Primary Care model of membership. I’ve never regretted my decision and my wife was thrilled to be able to have the same kind of care that I was so happy to receive.

As our family grew, we added our children to our membership and came to a whole new level of appreciation for these doctors and the care they gave us. If you’ve ever watched your children hurt or sick and not have an answer, the ability to call your doctor directly and get piece of mind immediately without having to rush to an emergency room or urgent care clinic is priceless.

When our first child “aged-out” of being in the family pricing and was going to college, we had to sit down and decide what to do about their membership. Would they use it if they weren’t living here and we weren’t “managing” their health directly? Should we continue to pay for this as they were becoming adults themselves?

After much debate, we decided to give it a trial run and see if it would be worth the additional price for someone at college in another state. And I’m so glad we did. Our daughter came home several times over that first year and ensured she made her annual appointments for preventative health. Additionally, she used the ability to call, email and text her doctor directly and when she was sick, she didn’t have to wait in line at the college’s free clinic to be seen and get medicine. Her overall feeling was that with all the changes of moving away, it was nice that she got to keep some consistency in her health. And to us, that was well worth the extra $30 a month.

Now all of our “kids” have gone off to college, and each one has stayed with ProPartners. Even better for me, they pay for it themselves because they have been raised to understand the value of good healthcare. And honestly, we're all spoiled with the amazing service provided to us when we need it most. Can't imagine ever leaving!

The Effects of Insurance Involvement on Primary Care

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Americans have a love-hate relationship with health insurance. It is universally accepted that we all need health insurance, but selecting and paying for it is often frustrating and always complicated. Whether major medical insurance is offered to us through an employer or if we are shopping for it as an individual or for our family, there are invariably multiple plan options presented to us that include extensive and overwhelming details. Since we aren’t health insurance industry experts, we are faced with making a decision (on a deadline) without understanding all of the implications of our choice. And, although we feel like there is too much information and too many choices being presented to us, the choices are predefined by our employer, an insurance broker, or a health insurance marketplace “exchange” in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) known as Obamacare.

This pick-a-card-any-card approach often finds us living with consequences that never occurred to us when we selected our insurance plan. Surprises may come up at the time you receive care but are most commonly realized long after the fact when the bill or Explanation of Benefits (EOB) arrives. Unexpected costs may be in the area of coverage (such as exclusions of coverage for various services) or in unexpected costs from deductibles or various categories of copayments.

As with most things in life, health insurance can be a mixed bag of good and bad. Major medical insurance is literally a life-saver when catastrophe strikes. It singularly allows Americans to expect high-quality, high-tech, modern care that is the envy of the world. When we require hospitalizations, surgeries, and chronic specialty care for serious medical conditions, we fully realize the value of having comprehensive health insurance.

We can receive care that hardly anyone would be able to afford without insurance. That’s the good. The bad is in the many strings that are attached. Each insurance plan stipulates the conditions under which they will pay for services you receive. Medical services and products are only covered and reimbursed according to plan details, which determine where you receive care, who delivers the care, which doctors and facilities are in-network participating, which services (including types of visits, tests, and treatments) are allowed in network and out of network, what preventive and nonpreventive services are covered, your premiums, your deductibles, your copayments, your out-of-pocket limits, and what your doctors and other healthcare providers are paid and allowed to charge. Whew! It is clear who is in charge of your healthcare. In this book, I briefly consider how and why health insurance began in the United States and how it has evolved. I also explore the six major challenges and disadvantages to health insurance involvement in the relationship between you and your primary care physician.

The Long-Term Necessity of a Primary Care Relationship

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

You need a doctor for more than just urgent medical questions and treatments. The doctor-patient relationship is crucially important. You should recognize that the value of having a primary care physician extends well beyond securing quick access for life’s unexpected emergencies.

Americans receive medical care in many ways. Too often in the United States, the delivery of healthcare is done in a manner that is piecemeal, inefficient, and unnecessarily expensive. It is not uncommon for people to receive initial care from multiple providers in disparate medical practice settings and institutions. They may go to urgent care walk-in clinics as their primary first stop for illnesses and emergency departments at hospitals for even minor injuries. In addition, they may see a cardiologist for their high blood pressure, an endocrinologist for simple type 2 diabetes, an allergist for seasonal allergies, and an orthopedist for chronic knee pain. It is also increasingly common for people to utilize some kind of telemedicine service, which puts them on the phone or a video call with a physician they have never met to address an acute medical concern.

In this example alone, a patient without a primary care physician may be seeing seven different physicians and medical groups for very common and routine conditions. As you might imagine, this widely dispersed care is inefficient, costly, and creates a situation that makes it nearly impossible for providers to smoothly coordinate the patient’s care.

There is a better way—a first stop for all medical questions and needs. A medical home where the majority of medical concerns are diagnosed and treated by a single physician and where any specialty care that is required is coordinated on behalf of the patient. Primary care physicians or PCPs are the doctors who fulfill this role for their patients. They are most often trained in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, or general practice and are well-equipped to handle the majority of health issues that patients may have. They are also alert to triage or refer their patients to any number of other physician specialists when needs arise. Not surprisingly, common things occur commonly.

Primary care physicians “specialize” in common conditions and health needs. A discussion of the value of primary healthcare must begin with a definition of the practice. A functional definition is found in a text by Cruz-Cunha and associates: Primary care involves the widest scope of healthcare, including all ages of patients, patients of all socioeconomic and geographic origins, patients seeking to maintain optimal health, and patients with all manner of acute and chronic physical, mental and social health issues, including multiple chronic diseases. Consequently, a primary care practitioner must possess a wide breadth of knowledge in many areas. Continuity is a key characteristic of primary care, as patients usually prefer to consult the same practitioner for routine check-ups and preventive care, health education, and every time they require an initial consultation about a new health problem. Collaboration among providers is a desirable characteristic of primary care.

Primary care is generally accepted to be the foundation of any effective healthcare system. Effective and efficient healthcare begins with a single primary physician who has an ongoing relationship with the patient, a detailed knowledge of their medical and personal history over time, and is trusted by the patient to be the first source of information, advice, diagnosis, and treatment of their health needs. In the context of this relationship, patients are statistically more likely to receive timely preventive screenings, early detection and treatment of diseases, and well-balanced health education and are more likely to be encouraged in lifestyle modification and healthy lifestyle. Primary care improves health, prevents illness and death, and is also associated with a more equitable distribution of health in populations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with primary care relationships were better able to receive appropriate medical care, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 infection and had a medical consultant to explain confusing mitigation guidance and mandates as questions arose. Primary care physicians also serve as a medical home for their patients, referring and coordinating consultations of specialists and explaining/interpreting the recommendations of these specialists to their patients.

Primary Care in America

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

The current state of primary care in America is . . . frustration. For numerous reasons, the delivery of primary care services and access to primary care physicians have become increasingly difficult and frustrating. Who hasn’t asked themselves all of these questions?

• Why can’t I just get my doctor on the phone for two minutes?

• Wouldn’t it be so much easier if I could simply text my doctor a question?

• Why can’t I schedule an appointment to see my doctor today?

• What am I supposed to do at night or on the weekend when my doctor’s office is closed and I have a medical issue?

• Why do I have to schedule a different appointment for every problem I need to address?

• Why can’t I see the same doctor every time I come in?

• Why do I have to see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant instead of my doctor?

• Why is the doctor so rushed?

• Why doesn’t the doctor listen?

• Why is my doctor always running way behind schedule?

• Why do I have to fill out all this paperwork every time I go to the doctor’s office?

The fact is, the delivery system for primary care in America is overly taxed to the point that access to primary care physicians and the quality of care are suffering. There are several reasons for this current state and more than a few measurable negative consequences of it. Too many people are not connected with a personal physician over time and are not receiving many of the benefits of primary care.

It is clear that better delivery of primary care would improve population health and decrease costs. Unfortunately, the exact opposite is occurring and seems likely to worsen. Currently, 82 million people in the US (a full 25% of the population) do not have anyone that they recognize as their primary care physician. Sadly, 20% of adults have not seen any doctor within the past year, and only 8% have received all recommended high-priority preventive services.

More recently, nearly 40% of Americans have avoided doctor visits for important medical symptoms and preventive services during the COVID-19 pandemic due to concerns about not feeling safe going to the office. This current inadequate state of primary care is driven by several factors:

• An increasing shortage of primary care physicians

• With fewer doctors, those in practice are overextended

• Ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Clearly negative effects of health insurance participation in the relationship between primary care physicians and their patients

These factors result in poor quality of care, low patient satisfaction with access to primary care, and an ever-increasing cost of care.

Sometimes You Just Want Answers

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Google receives more than one billion health-related questions every day. That’s an estimated 7% of all Google searches performed. Only a minority of these searches are for the purpose of finding a doctor. Most are people simply seeking health information and insight on their personal health, medical conditions, symptoms, medical test explanations, medications, nutrition, fitness, dietary supplements, or insurance questions.

Interestingly, health-related Google searches increase significantly in individuals who end up in the emergency room within the following two to three weeks. People clearly have health questions that require answers and often have pressing questions that, if not answered, may result in significant medical problems. As a practicing physician, I regularly see patients whose health outcomes would have been much better if they had been able to have their questions answered in a timely manner from a reliable and accurate source of information.

Jacqui, for example, knew something was wrong. Over the previous couple of weeks, she was having episodes of dizziness. Not just a little lightheadedness but actual spinning around vertigo. This was completely new to her so her instinct was to do her own research like she does for everything else in life—she Googled it. If only she knew what to believe.

She found a huge number of causes for vertigo and some were really scary. If she had one of those conditions, she needed to go to the ER right away. Then she remembered her doctor. She called our office, spoke with her physician on the phone, and was seen the same day. As it turns out, she didn’t have a significant issue and was treated and reassured that her symptoms would likely resolve within another couple of weeks. Had she called sooner, she would not have had to worry and wonder what was wrong or what to do about it.

Contrary to popular belief, doctors really do appreciate it when their patients ask questions and take an active role in their own health. Asking questions and being engaged in the process of their own medical care is helpful to their doctor in delivering high-quality care, and it makes it much more likely that patients will comprehend and put into action the treatments and recommendations that their physician discusses with them. Even when patients’ sources of information from an online health related search are suspect or flat-out wrong, the inquiring mind absorbs much more of the accurate and necessary information that their physician (hopefully) shares and allows them to become true partners with their doctor in their ongoing health.

My son recently graduated from medical school, and I had the honor of “hooding” him (a proud dad moment when I draped the medical hood over his gown during the graduation ceremony). I felt like I should impart some kind of wisdom to help crystallize this new journey he was preparing to begin. I told him that, in his entire career as a practicing physician in service to his patients, he will basically answer only two very important questions: What’s wrong with me? and What should I do about it?

When people seek a doctor, they have a surprising breadth of questions, but the vast majority of them boil down to helping them understand the cause of their symptoms or health situation and then formulating a plan to address them. It seems simple, but it’s surprising how often people seek answers from Dr. Google or even go to a physician’s office and these fundamental questions go unanswered. These two questions need to be answered for everyone’s health and peace of mind.

Click here to read more from Dr. Burns book, Medical Answers Now!

ProPartners & the Real Men Wear Pink Campaign for American Cancer Society KC

The staff at ProPartners Healthcare took on an Ambassador role in the month of October for the Real Men Wear Pink Campaign with the American Cancer Society Kansas City fundraiser. We posted on social media asking for donations for the worthy cause. There is still time left to donate, so make sure you are following us on social media (click the icons below) so you don’t miss out on all the fun things we are doing here at the office and in the community.