On the Revival of Individual House Call Doctors

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Re-Thinking a Popular Practice from the Past

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, MEd, CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

More personal than a corporate home care medical business model, most people view house calls as a popular practice from the past.

Although less than 5% of the nation’s doctors regularly make house calls today, the medical house call industry is swiftly picking up momentum once again. It is a move that is greatly benefiting physicians and patients alike.

Why House Calls?

It’s because we live in a society that has become technology focused. While this emergence has benefited many in terms of medical advancements, there are a growing number of patients who are uncomfortable with next-generation medical practices. These people, particularly the rapidly aging elders of the nation, want to be cared for in a friendly, nurturing, and convenient way. As people age and fall ill, it becomes increasingly difficult to leave the home for office visits. Not to mention, there are many handicapped patients as well who have to arrange for wheelchair vans or ambulances just to visit the doctor. The COVID pandemic and tele-health are illustrative.

Meeting a Niche Market Need

Thanks to the desire of physicians seeking to open their own medical house call practices, these patient needs are slowly being met. Some of these physicians are strictly open for house call visits only and have no physical office. They commonly take appointment requests via phone calls and emails with the overall goal to combine the service of an old-time, small town doctor with the latest technology designed to meet people’s emotional, and financial, needs. Patients are also able to save a considerable amount of time by not having to leave the house to go to the doctor’s office, and not having to fill prescriptions. After all, many medical house call physicians travel along with certain medications that can be dispensed on location. Narcotics, however, will likely still need to be filled with a paper or e-prescription.

While highly convenient for patients who wish to receive medical house call services, the reviving industry is fitting for physicians. In recent years, Medicare has increased its level or reimbursements for physicians who travel to patients. Just in the past few years alone, Medicare has been billed approximately $1.75 million annually for house calls. 

Enter the DNPs and NPs

Even nurse practitioners [NPs] and Doctors of Nursing Practice [DNPs] who make a small number of house calls are typically unaware that they can maximize profit potential with medical house calls. Some NPs have even offset operating expenses by offering house calls to make their office based practice more appealing to their patients.

Link: Front Matter BoMP – 3

Technology Enabled

Also, significant advances in technology have enabled popular medical equipment to be smaller and portable. Physicians are able to perform standard procedures, such as skin biopsies and blood draws while outside the office. They are also able to easily access patient medical records through usage of a laptop, as well as resources such as the Physicians’ Desk Reference [PDS] through usage of a hand-held personal digital assistant or smart cell phone.

Assessment

For example, this firm educates patients and supports physicians who are ready to make a transition from office-based positions to medical house call practices. There are no royalty or membership fees, and this is not a franchise. It helps transition to a reportedly more pleasing, profitable way to practice medicine today.

LINK: https://www.resurgia.com

Conclusion

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Ethics, Marcinko Associates, Practice Management, Research & Development | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Myths and Solutions for Healthcare Reform

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Enter the Primary Care Docs, NPs, PAs and DNPs

Staff Reportersidea

According to most Americans, many politicians, members of the Medical Executive-Post, and vocal primary care doctor Monte Uyemura MD, successful healthcare reform is critical to the well-being of our nation and a few myths need to be exploded. 

 

 

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/doctor-patient-relationships/

But, who has the Answers?

As a rural physician, he shouts in vain that politicians are:

“backing the trailer up to the wrong barn.”

Furthermore, he feels that:

“reform proposals utilizing creative accounting keep conjuring up healthcare expenditure savings where they don’t exist, and even if the proposed mythological information technology utopia could be achieved, it would be ‘mere cough medicine’ for our healthcare system’s pneumonia.”

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/an-open-letter-on-emrs-from-hayward-zwerling-md/#comment-2702

The Myths

According to the ME-P, and Uyemura, these myths include: evidence-based-medicine [EBM], health information technology [HIT] and electronic Medical Records (eMRs), quality improvement initiatives and, of course, universal healthcare coverage.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/eight-fallacies-of-managed-care

The Answer

Uyemura believes the answer is a mass-infusion of family practitioners, or what he calls an:

“army of primary care physicians.”

Link: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2009/02/index.html

Assessment

Of course, we could not agree with him more and would include grass-roots level Nurse Practitioners [NPs], Physician Assistants [PAs] and Doctors of Nursing Practice [DNPs].

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/stemming-the-primary-care-exodus

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. Would more family practitioners, and professional medical care extenders, help or hinder true healthcare reform?  

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com  or Bio: www.stpub.com/pubs/authors/MARCINKO.htm

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