HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENTS
July 5, 2002 - WAR REPORT NUMBER 27-2002
This is the third and last in a series of WAR Reports adapted from articles in FACT AND COMMENT by Steve Forbes in the 5/27/02 edition of Forbes magazine.

Here is another proposal that would encourage already impressive examples of American Ingenuity in the delivery of health care. If you haven't done so, read the cover story on the 4/22/02 issue of U.S. News & World Report. The article mentions SimpleCare, a Seattle-based network of doctors that gives patients a discount up to 50 percent if they pay for their visits on the spot and don't bother with insurance claims. A number of physicians practice group medicine, in which ten to 12 patients meet with a doctor for 90 minutes of so. In front of the others, each person discusses his maladies, and the doctor makes and explains his diagnosis. Others around the table may chime in with their opinions or experiences with the problem at hand. These patients find the long face-to-face time with the physician and unhurried and relaxed atmosphere appealing. People have common health problems, and shared information can be helpful as well as uplifting.

Other doctors are utilizing e-mail to the max at their clinics. Patients can send as many questions as they want by e-mail and will receive replies quickly from physicians. Doctors can tap out e-mail answers at midnight, a time when they certainly won't call you on the phone. Patients find that in a traditional clinic or hospital, when they finally get an appointment with a doctor, they get to ask only a handful of their questions and then are rushed out. With e-mail there can be an ongoing dialogue. There are other physicians who have decided to take on a small number of patients who can call him or her at any time. The patients and their family members spend as much time with the doctor as they wish. These doctors are solo practitioners and run their own offices. They do not make a lot of money - the one highlighted in the U.S. News story sees five patients a day and takes in about $80,000 a year - but they feel they are genuinely practicing medicine and not treating patients as if they were on an assembly line.

The one-size-fits-all concept does not work for most goods and services, and, we are starting to see, it is not the approach to take with medicine either. Putting patients in charge of health care dollars would generate proliferation of these affordable, innovative approaches. (I am in good company.)

Stay tuned! Why? Because I tell it like it is and it's your money.

God Bless America.