Primary Medical Care Center was formed many years ago in Miami, Florida. Its founders intended to create a value-based care facility that devoted more time to seeing and treating patients. That was an unusual idea back in the day because most healthcare facilities in Florida were operating under the fee-based care model. Even to this day, very few Florida healthcare facilities use the value-based model rather than the fee-based one.
Why is that? Well, these healthcare facilities are businesses, and they want to make money. Therefore, the fastest and easiest way for these facilities to make money is to build up an extensive list of patients and only spend a small amount of time with them during each appointment.
In other words, keep the patients returning for treatment but only spend a few minutes with them during each visit. That way, these healthcare facilities can continue making money off their patients’ insurance without providing sufficient treatment for their health problems. Instead, the doctors will only give the patients something to temporarily treat the symptoms rather than the root cause of their health problems.
Primary Medical Care Center never wanted our primary care physicians to do this with patients. For this reason, we use transformative primary care to treat patients and address the root cause of their health problems.
An Overview of Transformative Primary Care
Did you know the average patient insured by Medicare will see their primary care doctor an average of 1.2 times per year in the United States? These are all patients relying on fee-based care facilities to treat them.
Under a value-based care system, the average patient will see their primary care physician at least once per month, if not more. The reason is that primary care physicians use a transformative primary care approach for treating their patients.
Transformative primary care is a form of primary care centered on the patient and their health needs. It requires primary care doctors to spend more time with their patients to develop a better doctor-patient relationship.
When doctors have more time with patients, they can learn more about their families, living situations, lifestyle habits, and history. This information is key to addressing the patient’s social, environmental, and physiological challenges affecting their health.
Eventually, patients will begin to trust their doctors more because of all the time they spend talking and sharing information. If patients can trust their doctor, they will be more willing to open up about their personal lives and talk about intimate things related to their health. These conversations can help a doctor come up with viable solutions for treating the cause of their patient’s health problems more directly.
Transformative primary care can literally change the life of patients for the better. Primary care physicians will no longer spend a few minutes with patients and write them prescriptions for medications that won’t help address their problems. Instead, the doctors will spend lots of time with patients and have in-depth conversations about their health and its surrounding factors. That is how positive changes to a patient’s health and lifestyle are achievable.
America Needs Transformative Care Now
America desperately needs transformative care in every healthcare facility in the country. Unfortunately, the fee-based service model continues to dominate hospitals and primary care facilities across the country. What’s sad is that Americans spend double on healthcare compared to other developed nations, yet the United States still has a high rate of people with chronic disease and preventable deaths.
We’re not even talking about the effects of COVID-19 either. The American healthcare system was already in bad shape even before COVID-19 hit the United States. And to make matters worse, the country is short roughly 124,000 doctors and 450,000 registered nurses because of all the patients seeking care.
Transformative care is the solution to all these problems. Not only would it help reverse the health conditions of more patients, but it would also reduce the demand for more doctors and nurses. After all, if patients can be cured of their problems rather than merely treat the symptoms, they won’t need to keep seeking treatment from doctors. It would eventually take pressure off the doctors because their patients soon won’t need them anymore.
Follow Our Lead
Primary Medical Care Center has already proven that the transformative primary care system can achieve positive patient results in South Florida. But we cannot handle every patient alone. It will require more primary care physicians to drop their fee-based care model and adopt the value-based care model. That way, they can offer transformative care to patients that target the root causes of their health problems.
Would you like to learn more about transformative care and how it can make you a better care provider to your patients? Primary Medical Care Center at (305) 751-1500 for more information.