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Professional news! 
Today's my first day @STAT in my new role as a full-time reporter covering everywhere $ meets healthcare.
Dumb $ reason people aren't getting innovations or the best care? Screaming up the wall about ridiculous rules? Labor issues? 
fees?
hmu: brittany.trang@statnews.com or 231-818-8189 on Signal
Random "$ meets healthcare" thoughts from a 25 year #familymedicine doc:
1. The collapse of independent practices and hospitals into regional medical monopolies or oligopolies has been fascinating and horrifying. @pluralistic had some good insights into this recently.
2. A large proportion, if not most, of medical care is routine, non-urgent and potentially 'shoppable' but we prepay for it with the same mechanisms we use for ER visits and big inpatient stays causing great harm. It's like using auto insurance for oil changes or homeowner's to have the plumber fix the toilet.
Yes, I'm biased as a #directprimarycare doc but this realization was a big part of why I left #insurance paid practice eight years ago.
#dpc
#costsofcare
3. Over half my patients have very high deductibles and out of pocket costs so are very interested in lower costs but hospitals apparently are getting away with not posting prices except in very limited ways.
Getting prices for patients paying out of pocket is like pulling teeth for us, worse for patients.
4. #maine is one of many states that still have Certificate of Need laws that had the goal of reducing oversupply/use of services but now protect hospital networks (mostly regional monopolies) from lower priced competitors.
It's not rare for me to send patients out of state for cheaper studies, procedures, etc. The price savings are often big enough to make the trips worthwhile for them. The shorter wait for consults are a bonus.
@brittanytrang @STAT
5. There are now over 1000 #directprimarycare physicians with most starting new practices in the last ten years but the only article on @STAT is a negative opinion piece by an academic with mistaken assumptions and confusing #DPC with its more expensive cousin, #concierge care.
You can do better.