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Simple
Care approach gets doctors' support
By CAROL CARTER
Union Leader Correspondent
Physicians should get their heads out of
the sand and regain control of their practices, unencumbered by burdensome
health insurance restrictions, the founder of a new nationwide health-care
reform program said last week.
Simple Care, a nonprofit physician-driven program to revolutionize health
care with cash payments, aims to reduce the frustration, delayed payments
and tremendous amount of paperwork created by insurance companies,
according to Dr. Vern Cherewatenko.
Since starting the program in his own practice, Cherewatenko said he has
trimmed administrative costs dramatically and cut fees for services. He
now spends more time on patients and less on paperwork.
The program was the brainchild of Cherewatenko and David MacDonald, who
together operate the largest integrated medical clinic in the Seattle
area. About 18 months ago,
Cherewatenko — a family physician —said he sat down with his partner
to determine why their practice was losing so much money.
"Our combined practice billings totaled over $10 million but
we were losing money on a monthly basis and were rapidly flying our
businesses straight into the ground," Cherewatenko said.
The doctors calculated they were losing about $7 per patient
totaling about $80,000 monthly. In April 1998, they looked at their books
and determined they would be bankrupt in six months if they continued on
that course. "Our
practice was literally being exterminated by the expanding amount of
paperwork that was supposed to improve care and hold down costs,"
said Cherewatenko. At one
point, the clinics needed six medical records clerks just to deal with
copying records from patients transferring in and out of the various
managed care plans, he said. Cheaper
copy paper and fewer nurses wouldn't turn the tide, the doctors decided.
The key was having patients pay at the time of service so the clinics
could cut fees by half and get out of those ridiculous contracts,
Cherewatenko said.
After discovering that one-fifth of the nation is uninsured and most are
very willing to pay a reasonable fee for care, the doctors founded Simple
Care. "We decided it would be a really novel concept if doctors and
patients got together to try and solve the health care problem in the
country," said Cherewatenko. With
this common sense approach, fees have been cut significantly. Both the
patients and staff love the new system in the Seattle clinics, he added.
Within three months of adopting the program, the clinics were $10,000 per
month into the black by ridding themselves of the busy work of managed
care, Cherewatenko said.
Across the nation, physicians are joining Simple Care daily. About 100
have joined in the past two weeks alone, Cherewatenko said.
More information about Simple Care is available by phoning
888-469-1112 or at their Web site: www.simplecare.com& www.aapp.net
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