Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Washington state doctors like cash
[Nick Perry, "A health plan that covers it all: cash," The Seattle Times, 15 February 2005.]
Consumers are pushing for change in health care through HSAs and other tools, but change is coming from other areas, as well. More and more doctors are getting fed up with the administrative burden of government program and insurance company paperwork and are switching to a cash-only basis:
Carolyn Kunard, 54, is typical of a new breed of cash patient. When husband Craig Kunard was laid off from his job at the Experience Music Project in Seattle a couple of years ago, the Mukilteo couple found themselves paying $750 a month to keep their insurance through COBRA, a federally-mandated program that helps people maintain health insurance between jobs.
The Kunards found that their insurance did not help much with their prescription costs. So they switched to paying around $300 per month for a policy that covers only expensive, catastrophic care, and began paying the full cost for prescriptions. Then they discovered the cash-only Save Now Discount Pharmacy in Lynnwood.
"It's unbelievable to me the prices you can get here," Carolyn Kunard said on a recent visit.
Save Now founder Todd McElroy said that's because he saves up to 30 percent of staff costs by eliminating insurance paperwork. Even as the pharmacy becomes larger, the labor savings will be more than 15 percent, he said. That enables him to offer prices competitive with low-price Canadian pharmacies, he said.
Dr. Vern Cherewatenko of Renton said he decided to switch to a cash-only system in 1998 after he found himself bogged down in insurance paperwork. For every minute he was spending with a patient, he'd spend seven minutes dealing with paperwork, he said.
Not anymore.
"I'm seeing a few less patients, but I'm able to spend a lot more time with them," Cherewatenko said. "I'm profitable and they're happy."
Cherewatenko also launched SimpleCare, a nationwide network of doctors and patients who support a cash system for routine care. He said 18,000 providers pay a small fee for an educational packet about running a cash-only business, and to be listed on a Web site.
"It's fixing the doctor-patient relationship. It's getting reconnected without the middlemen in between," Cherewatenko said.
[Nick Perry, "A health plan that covers it all: cash," The Seattle Times, 15 February 2005.]
Consumers are pushing for change in health care through HSAs and other tools, but change is coming from other areas, as well. More and more doctors are getting fed up with the administrative burden of government program and insurance company paperwork and are switching to a cash-only basis:
Carolyn Kunard, 54, is typical of a new breed of cash patient. When husband Craig Kunard was laid off from his job at the Experience Music Project in Seattle a couple of years ago, the Mukilteo couple found themselves paying $750 a month to keep their insurance through COBRA, a federally-mandated program that helps people maintain health insurance between jobs.
The Kunards found that their insurance did not help much with their prescription costs. So they switched to paying around $300 per month for a policy that covers only expensive, catastrophic care, and began paying the full cost for prescriptions. Then they discovered the cash-only Save Now Discount Pharmacy in Lynnwood.
"It's unbelievable to me the prices you can get here," Carolyn Kunard said on a recent visit.
Save Now founder Todd McElroy said that's because he saves up to 30 percent of staff costs by eliminating insurance paperwork. Even as the pharmacy becomes larger, the labor savings will be more than 15 percent, he said. That enables him to offer prices competitive with low-price Canadian pharmacies, he said.
Dr. Vern Cherewatenko of Renton said he decided to switch to a cash-only system in 1998 after he found himself bogged down in insurance paperwork. For every minute he was spending with a patient, he'd spend seven minutes dealing with paperwork, he said.
Not anymore.
"I'm seeing a few less patients, but I'm able to spend a lot more time with them," Cherewatenko said. "I'm profitable and they're happy."
Cherewatenko also launched SimpleCare, a nationwide network of doctors and patients who support a cash system for routine care. He said 18,000 providers pay a small fee for an educational packet about running a cash-only business, and to be listed on a Web site.
"It's fixing the doctor-patient relationship. It's getting reconnected without the middlemen in between," Cherewatenko said.
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