HSAs are intended to encourage more cost-conscious spending by placing more of the health care financing burden on out-of-pocket spending by the users of services, as opposed to having the costs of those services incorporated in payments shared over a wider group of plan enrollees regardless of service use. H/T Blumberg and Cope. HSAs areContinue reading “HSA breaks for DPC defeat the purpose of HSA breaks”
Author Archives: Gary Ratner
DPC from 30,000 feet, on September 2020
Even with all the overhead reductions that come from not taking third party payment and/or from not billing on a fee for service basis Even with those reductions transformed to increased primary care access that results in clear reductions on ED visits and other urgent care needs Still, Direct Primary Care with panels of 600Continue reading “DPC from 30,000 feet, on September 2020”
Helping those patients most dependent on DPC means defeating the DPC/HDHP/HSA “fix”.
Plus, two more reasons to reject the “fix”. Direct Primary care clinicians and advocates often point out, accurately, that they serve a broad socio-economic range of patients. The range is well illustrated by a pair of oft-appearing themes, “concierge care for the middle class” and “affordable care for those who fall between the cracks”. InContinue reading “Helping those patients most dependent on DPC means defeating the DPC/HDHP/HSA “fix”.”
DPC is way different than you paying Neflix. Notes
The State of New York has the financial capital of the country (arguably the world), has the most insurance companies in the country, and was the biggest state for the longest time. For these reasons it is generally looked to for leadership in the law on financial subjects primarily governed by state law. Here’s theirContinue reading “DPC is way different than you paying Neflix. Notes”
DPC subscriptions transfer financial risk.
Identifying DPC nonsense does not require a law degree. Watch out. Near you is a direct primary care advocate begging a legislator or regulator to make his medical practice less accountable. He is stomping his feet very, very hard and he’s shouting “This is not insurance”, “There is no risk being transferred”, or “My practiceContinue reading “DPC subscriptions transfer financial risk.”
DPC cherry-picking: the defense speaks. Part 2.
Update: In the fall of 2020, KPI Ninja released the first study that relies on it’s new risk information technology. I find it sadly opaque. Recap of Part 1 The direct primary care community has long tried to support claims that DPC reduces overall health care costs by 20% to 40% with non-risk-adjusted cost-reduction dataContinue reading “DPC cherry-picking: the defense speaks. Part 2.”
DPC cherry-picking: the defense speaks. Part 1.
Jump to Part 2. Within days of the Milliman report warning of the “imperative to control for patient selection in DPC studies [lest] differences in cost due to underlying patient differences [] be erroneously assigned as differences caused by DPC”, the first rumbling of resistance from the DPC advocacy community emerged. This was a suggestion,Continue reading “DPC cherry-picking: the defense speaks. Part 1.”
Milliman: A $60 PMPM DPC fee buys an employer a zero ROI.
An actuarial study brings employer direct primary care to a turning point. Milliman’s actuaries insisted that DPC cost reduction data without risk adjustment is essentially worthless. A second prong of Milliman’s analysis suggested that the direct primary care model is associated with a 12.6% over-all reduction in health services utilization*. Then, working from that number,Continue reading “Milliman: A $60 PMPM DPC fee buys an employer a zero ROI.”
Ultimate DPC goal: capitation without accountability (rewrite)
Allowing an HSA holder to use pre-tax dollars to buy subscriptions only gets DPC operators so far. The HSA holders would still notice that their paid subscription fees will not actually make a dent in meeting their insurance deductible. DPC advocates will then reprise their perennial theme song, “Insurer’s conditions on payment interfere with theContinue reading “Ultimate DPC goal: capitation without accountability (rewrite)”
Downstream consequences when employers fall for non-risk-adjusted data brags.
Do you remember when Union County’s three year DPC commitment for 2016-2018 was claimed to be saving Union County $1.25 Million per year? So why did Union County’s health benefits expenditure rise twice as fast as can be explained by the combined effect of medical price inflation* and workforce growth? For the first year orContinue reading “Downstream consequences when employers fall for non-risk-adjusted data brags.”
DPC Referee 