The relationship between concierge practice models and standard insurance-based practice is often presented as an all-or-nothing, either-or dichotomy. In reality, many practices are doing both, according to a recent survey.
Dr. Mark Holthouse, a family physician near Sacramento, CA, was looking for a way out of insurance-based practice so he could freely implement holistic modalities. The concierge model seemed dicey; total direct-pay would exclude many patients. Then he discovered Physician Care Direct, with it’s flexible hybrid model. In this interview, Dr. Holthouse describes his practice transformation.
In the last year, there’s been an explosion in the number of medical or health-related apps available to smart phone and mobile computer users. Everything from home sleep monitoring to food label analyzers is now available in app form. That’s on top of hundreds of medical apps for doctors. Do they really help improve health? Is anybody regulating them? HPC’s new tech-maven, Sarah Showalter, wades into the flood of health apps to find out.
HPC’s Heal Thy Practice conference will be returning to the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel next Fall! The 4th annual conference will be held from November 9-11, 2012. Dr. Steven Masley, founder/director of the Masley Optimal Health Center, will be returning to the helm.
“The response to the 2011 conference was extremely positive from attendees, exhibitors and faculty alike,” says conference producer and HPC’s publisher, Meg Sinclair. “The program provided an excellent combination of clinical skill-building, nitty gritty practice development, and inspirational experiential sessions. The Renaissance really made us feel at home, coming through with truly fantastic healthy food. We’re excited to be returning.”
Clinical skill-building, nuts & bolts practice management, and experiential vision-questing combined to make HPC’s third annual Heal Thy Practice conference a truly transformative weekend. In the words of one attendee: “I came here saddened. I now have hope!”
We are happy to announce that Heal Thy Practice will be returning to the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in 2012. The 4th annual conference will run from Nov. 9-11. Once again, Dr. Steven Masley, founder/director of the Masley Optimal Health Center, will be at the helm.
Faced with ever-growing bureaucracy and continued declines in reimbursement, more practitioners than ever are contemplating a shift into some form of direct-pay or retainer practice. But the move out of insurance-based practice is not without medicolegal risks, and needs to be done very carefully, says Alan Dumoff, JD, a lawyer specializing in integrative practice issues.
The need for lifestyle-based medicine is stronger than ever, as is the public’s valuation of it despite the economic doldrums. Holistic Primary Care’s Third Annual Heal Thy Practice: Transforming Primary Care conference in Long Beach, CA, Nov. 4-6, provides opportunity to learn about transformative practice models and therapeutic techniques from clinicians who’ve successfully put them into real-world practice. Here are some practice pearls from our faculty.
Building on the strengths and successes of our previous Heal Thy Practice meetings, Holistic Primary Care’s 2011 Heal Thy Practice is hitting the California coast! Set for Nov. 4-6, at the Renaissance Long Beach hotel, the program brings together pioneers of integrative medicine and innovative practice systems. Over two and a half days, they’ll share their years of experience and practical wisdom on how to put the health, the wealth—and most importantly, the joy⎯back into clinical practice. Register Now!
In a recent survey three out of four Americans said that given the choice, they would prefer to fill their medication prescriptions and get their supplements in their doctor’s office instead of having to make a separate trip to a retail store. While only a small percentage of US doctors currently offer this option, many are considering office-based dispensing. It can improve clinical outcomes while simultaneously improving the fiscal health of beleaugered physicians’ practices.
Doctors–and their patients–have much more to fear from Wall Street than from the government, says Wendell Potter, former director of corporate communications for CIGNA health insurance. Following a crisis of conscience during the debates on the Obama administration’s health care reform plan, Mr. Potter left CIGNA and went public with everything he knows about the insurance industry’s “Dark Arts.” His goal? To wake people up to the ways in which corporate interests manipulate health care policy. His book, Deadly Spin, is as fascinating as it is frightening. In this exclusive interview, Mr. Potter spoke with Holistic Primary Care about the long history of collusion between organized medicine and Big Insurance—an uneasy alliance that has ultimately been detrimental to patients and physicians alike.
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