How Direct Primary Care Can Help Fix American’s Growing Dissatisfaction with Healthcare

Healthcare2U’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Rodriguez, is featured in a news story with Katie Aupperle on their “Focus at Four” segment discussing how Direct Primary Care can help fix the problem with current healthcare, something that a recent poll stated many Americans are dissatisfied with.

Transcript

Katie Aupperle: Unexpected costs, access challenges, and long wait times. The barriers to seeing a doctor can stand in the way of receiving healthcare. A new poll finds that public satisfaction with the US healthcare system is remarkably low. Many are now looking for ways to make improvements- this is where direct primary care comes in.

To explain more about what this is, we’re joined by Dr. John Rodriguez. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. We wanted to start off, what did we see from the recent poll about satisfaction with our healthcare?

Dr. John Rodriguez: Yeah, I mean, again, to me, no surprise. We’ve been seeing this decline for quite a number of years now. It’s just the “hurry up healthcare system” we’re in now. Everyone’s in a hurry- doctors are in a hurry to see as many patients as they can, people ae trying to fight insurance companies because of the poor reimbursement, etc. So, we’re seeing the inevitable result is just poor patient satisfaction. When you’re only allowed seven minutes with your physician to maybe go over two or three items, it can be pretty frustrating in terms of the care received.

Katie Aupperle: What are some concerns that we’re seeing from people?

Dr. John Rodriguez: One of the concerns is that “the doctor didn’t listen to me”, right? So, patients walk out of the exam room just feeling like their questions weren’t answered and their care wasn’t appropriate. They’re left kind of in the dark in some sense, and good or bad, the patient is not happy and then they may seek care somewhere else or find another physician or clinic to what they think is receiving better care, but unfortunately, can be the same song and dance from clinic to clinic.

Katie Aupperle: What are some steps that you are hoping can be taken to improve circumstances?

Dr. John Rodriguez: Well with Healthcare2U, we advocate more of a direct relationship with your provider. The sad thing is, at the end of the day, it’s about trying to make a living. When you’re not paid enough by insurance companies and third-party payers, the quality of care suffers. We’re trying to bring more quality back in healthcare and make it more direct, like our direct primary care model, which is advocates for the relationship between patient and physician. That really puts the responsibility on the physician to provide that better care without having to worry about filing claim after claim after claim.

Katie Aupperle: How can this make a difference for patients?

Dr. John Rodriguez: For patients, it’s much better experience. The patient is allowed more time with the physician or their primary care provider. Instead of seven minutes, now it can go really as long as 15 to 30 minutes, if need be, to listen to the complaints of the patient. And the physician is obliged at that point because he’s now in a better financial position to be able to take care of that patient and provide the care they need, whether it’s further testing, less testing and saving the system money because the physician is able to listen, etc. I think that’s the key in all this is that the quality of the patient care is heightened as well as the value of the care given is improved on, and that there’s not a lot of wasted testing, a lot of wasted referrals, etc. which adds to the cost of healthcare in general.

Katie Aupperle: Are there any steps that patients can take to improve their experience?

Dr. John Rodriguez: Absolutely. I think number one is being patient with your current provider. Understanding that there’s a lot of burnout amongst physicians. They’re just very unhappy and feel like they’re trapped., so a lot of physicians just are not capable of giving the care they would like to give. I think that’s the frustrating thing in all of this. So, what patients can do is just be patient with their provider and understand that they’re going through some struggles. But at the end of the day, really what can the patient do, if they’re looking for better care for themselves, is to seek out a practice that has a DPC sort of a model. In other words, a cash direct model where the patient would pay a small monthly fee to be in that practice as a membership, thus allowing that provider to give the care that that patient deserves.

Katie Aupperle: Dr. Rodriguez, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and walk us through this.

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