As noted in the Baltimore Sun, some primary care physicians in Howard County (AI’s home county) are spurning Medicare and other third party payers in favor of private-pay / concierge medicine.
This article—and the underlying trend—highlight the urgent need for reform of our country’s healthcare system. The current model of disease management and reactive medicine have marginalized primary care doctors; both care quality and financial outcomes have suffered as a result.
Efficient health information exchange (HIE), like the effort underway in Maryland via CRISP, will facilitate better care coordination, although HIE alone is by no means a silver bullet. Primary care providers – or care coordinators of some sort – are necessary to help patients navigate the complex web of providers, payers and other parties, especially in a world of interconnected data sources. In our experience, the primary care physician office is in the best position to aggregate and maintain the complete electronic health record (EHR) for a given patient. We believe that this will continue to be the case in an increasingly complex, distributed, and information-rich healthcare environment.
Ref: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.md.doctors26oct26,0,2289360.story?page=1