Comments on: Could For-Fee Medicine Save U.S. Healthcare? http://blog.sermo.com/2013/11/12/could-for-fee-medicine-save-u-s-healthcare/ Talk Real World Medicine Mon, 23 Mar 2015 13:00:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0 By: seandparnell http://blog.sermo.com/2013/11/12/could-for-fee-medicine-save-u-s-healthcare/#comment-21 Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:15:52 +0000 http://blog.sermo.com/?p=673#comment-21 Thanks for the reply, Lisa. I think my objection was more to the ‘walk-in’ than the ‘low-end,’ but from a VC perspective I can see where it might make sense to lump them together.

]]> By: lisasermo http://blog.sermo.com/2013/11/12/could-for-fee-medicine-save-u-s-healthcare/#comment-20 Tue, 12 Nov 2013 18:51:23 +0000 http://blog.sermo.com/?p=673#comment-20 Sean, thank you for your comments and I understand where you’re coming from. The high-end vs. low-end is from a business analysis point of view only (think of a bunch of venture capitalists discussing “the market” in a conference room somewhere) and not meant to place physicians into any categories. Several Sermo physicians run for-free clinics and are well-respected (even leaders) in the industry. And yes, there clearly is a difference between a minute-clinic and a for-fee facility, again for the purposes of this post and from that VC perspective they are similar enough to group together. The point was this is where the money is flowing too from the investment side. In this case “low-end” is very desirable. Hope that clarifies.

]]> By: seandparnell http://blog.sermo.com/2013/11/12/could-for-fee-medicine-save-u-s-healthcare/#comment-19 Tue, 12 Nov 2013 14:55:47 +0000 http://blog.sermo.com/?p=673#comment-19 I’m not sure it’s fair to call the ‘low-end’ of fee-based medicine ‘walk-in clinics,’ at least when you’re discussing direct primary care physicians. These are for the most part regular doctor’s offices (nothing ‘low-end’ about them unless you mean affordable), they simply have opted out of third-party payment and instead have a patient base that pays a monthly fee to cover their treatment. I’ve profiled several of them on my blog, for example: http://theselfpaypatient.com/2013/10/03/deal-of-a-lifetime-offered-by-direct-primary-care-practice-in-kansas/

Minute Clinic and similar operations are walk-in clinics, and they fill an important niche in the market as well. But they are much different than fee-based direct primary care practices, contrary to the suggestion in this otherwise informative article.

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