South Portland Doctor Stops Accepting Insurance, Posts Prices Online

[bonnie]

Good for him,we have some in MN doing same.If this spreads how long before this becomes illegal somehow?

South Portland Doctor Stops Accepting Insurance, Posts Prices Online

By Jackie Farwell, BDN Staff

Posted May 27, 2013, at 4:07 p.m.

As Maine hospitals grow, prices and access to medical care are put on the line

Dr. Michael Ciampi took his practice back from Mercy health system after finding that patient care was too impersonal. He also stopped accepting insurance and Medicaid as way to deal more directly with his patients.

Troy R. Bennett | BDN

Dr. Michael Ciampi took his practice back from Mercy health system after finding that patient care was too impersonal. He also stopped accepting insurance and Medicaid as way to deal more directly with his patients. Buy Photo

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Dr. Michael Ciampi took a step this spring that many of his fellow physicians would describe as radical.

The family physician stopped accepting all forms of health insurance. In early 2013, Ciampi sent a letter to his patients informing them that he would no longer accept any kind of health coverage, both private and government-sponsored. Given that he was now asking patients to pay for his services out of pocket, he posted his prices on the practice’s website.

The change took effect April 1.

Read: Medicare reveals hospitals’ prices for first time

“It’s been almost unanimous that patients have expressed understanding at why I’m doing what I’m doing, although I’ve had many people leave the practice because they want to be covered by insurance, which is understandable,” Ciampi said.

Before the switch, Ciampi had about 2,000 patients. He lost several hundred, he said. Some patients with health coverage, faced with having to seek reimbursement themselves rather than through his office, bristled at the paperwork burden.

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.

“I’m freed up to do what I think is right for the patients,” Ciampi said. “If I’m providing them a service that they value, they can pay me, and we cut the insurance out as the middleman and cut out a lot of the expense.”

Read: How much for joints, heart attack or pneumonia? Compare how Maine hospitals charge for common services

Ciampi expects more doctors will follow suit. Some may choose to run “concierge practices” in which patients pay to keep a doctor on retainer, he said.

Gordon Smith, a spokesman for the Maine Medical Association, wasn’t so sure, saying most patients either want to use the insurance they pay for or need to rely on Medicare and Medicaid.

Even with the loss of some patients, Ciampi expects his practice to perform just as well financially, if not better, than before he ditched insurance. The new approach will likely attract new patients who are self-employed, lack insurance or have high-deductible plans, he said, because Ciampi has slashed his prices.

“I’ve been able to cut my prices in half because my overhead will be so much less,” he said.

Read: Maine hospital charges insurance company colluded with competitor

Before, Ciampi charged $160 for an office visit with an existing patient facing one or more complicated health problems. Now, he charges $75.

Patients with an earache or strep throat can spend $300 at their local hospital emergency room, or promptly get an appointment at his office and pay $50, he said.

Ciampi collects payment at the end of the visit, freeing him of the time and costs associated with sending bills, he said.

That time is crucial to Ciampi. When his patients come to his office, they see him, not a physician’s assistant or a nurse practitioner, he said.

“If more doctors were able to do this, that would be real health care reform,” he said. “That’s when we’d see the cost of medicine truly go down.”

Read: With high deductible health plans, it pays to shop around for care

[joeb]

There was a doctor that did this several years ago in the town I lived in at the time. He did it because of one thing--so he could treat patients the way he thought they needed to be treated, not the way the insurance company, the clinic he had worked for, or the government thought they should be treated.

I don't know how it worked out for him as I never heard anything beyond the first letter he sent me. He had seen me once in a local clinic. Just as an aside, he had been an army doctor for a decade or so.

[Guest]