Doctor Stops Accepting Insurance, Prices Drop

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Here is the headline:

South Portland doctor stops accepting insurance, posts prices online

The byline is Portland, Maine.

I picked this up at The Instapundit, who noted:

Some of Helen’s psychologist friends have gone all-cash. They thought they’d lose business, but wound up with more patients, more money, and (much) less hassle.

The physician, Dr Michael Ciampi, says that when he made the switch he lost several hundred of his 2,000 patients, but now he is free to do medicine, rather than paperwork.

From the article:

But the decision to do away with insurance allows Ciampi to practice medicine the way he sees fit, he said.  Insurance companies no longer dictate how much he charges.  He can offer discounts to patients struggling with their medical bills.  He can make house calls.

For younger readers, a house call is when the physician comes to your home to check up on you when you are sick.  Ah, yes, I remember it well.

Perhaps the most radical impact of this change can be found in this sentence in the article:

Some patients with health coverage, faced with having to seek reimbursement themselves rather than through his office, bristled at the paperwork burden.

Citizens are made aware of the size and complication of the current health care insurance system.  This is before we feel the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  "Obama Care"