Monday, March 07, 2005
Door-to-door doctors
[Andrew Johnson, "The house call is back," The Washington Times, 6 March 2005.]
NCPA senior fellow and recent Flint Hills Center author Devon Herrick is quoted in this article on the emerging trend of doctors coming to see patients at home. As he explains, it is merely the market at work:
The number of physicians making house calls has grown steadily in the past three years to about 1,000, said Gresham Bayne, president of the American Academy of Home Care Physicians. The organization saw its own membership increase 15 percent last year.
The cause of the increase is the rapidly growing 80-and-older age demographic, Dr. Bayne said.
House calls aren't limited to primary care physicians anymore. Dentists, optometrists, veterinarians and podiatrists are shutting the doors to their offices and hitting the road.
Dr. Alan Dappen, owner of Doctor Family Medicine in Vienna, Va., makes house calls for patients within five miles of his office. The centerpiece of his practice, though, is a telephone and e-mail consultation service, which is billed according to time.
Patients can call or e-mail Dr. Dappen with medical questions before coming into the office. Often, a phone consultation will eliminate the need for an in-person visit, saving the patient money, he said.
The cost of a phone or e-mail consultation can range from $15 to more than $180, depending on how long they last.
Market demand is the driving factor behind house call and mobile practices, said Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. Consumers are becoming more aggressive about seeking health care, he said.
"Patients are driving a lot of this," said Mr. Herrick, author of the soon-to-be-released study "Consumer-Driven Health Care: The Changing Role of the Patient." "Doctors are responding to market forces."
[Devon Herrick, "Health Savings Accounts: The Future Of Health Care For Kansans," The Flint Hills Center, 14 February 2005.
Greg Scandlen, "Choice is revolutionizing health care," The Flint Hills Center, 28 September 2004.]
[Andrew Johnson, "The house call is back," The Washington Times, 6 March 2005.]
NCPA senior fellow and recent Flint Hills Center author Devon Herrick is quoted in this article on the emerging trend of doctors coming to see patients at home. As he explains, it is merely the market at work:
The number of physicians making house calls has grown steadily in the past three years to about 1,000, said Gresham Bayne, president of the American Academy of Home Care Physicians. The organization saw its own membership increase 15 percent last year.
The cause of the increase is the rapidly growing 80-and-older age demographic, Dr. Bayne said.
House calls aren't limited to primary care physicians anymore. Dentists, optometrists, veterinarians and podiatrists are shutting the doors to their offices and hitting the road.
Dr. Alan Dappen, owner of Doctor Family Medicine in Vienna, Va., makes house calls for patients within five miles of his office. The centerpiece of his practice, though, is a telephone and e-mail consultation service, which is billed according to time.
Patients can call or e-mail Dr. Dappen with medical questions before coming into the office. Often, a phone consultation will eliminate the need for an in-person visit, saving the patient money, he said.
The cost of a phone or e-mail consultation can range from $15 to more than $180, depending on how long they last.
Market demand is the driving factor behind house call and mobile practices, said Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. Consumers are becoming more aggressive about seeking health care, he said.
"Patients are driving a lot of this," said Mr. Herrick, author of the soon-to-be-released study "Consumer-Driven Health Care: The Changing Role of the Patient." "Doctors are responding to market forces."
[Devon Herrick, "Health Savings Accounts: The Future Of Health Care For Kansans," The Flint Hills Center, 14 February 2005.
Greg Scandlen, "Choice is revolutionizing health care," The Flint Hills Center, 28 September 2004.]
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