Rising health care costs are pushing some doctors to rethink the way they do business. A father-daughter medical practice in Honolulu is now cutting out the middle man. Instead of thinking about quantity, they’re now focused on quality.
HONOLULU (Island News) –Rising health care costs are pushing some doctors to rethink the way they do business. A father-daughter medical practice in Honolulu is now cutting out the middle man. Instead of thinking about quantity, they’re now focused on quality.
Dr. Curtis Takemoto-Gentile used to make house calls when he started in family medicine more than than 40 years ago.
“It’s very tell-taling and you get a lot of information that you can’t get in a regular doctor’s office visit so I loved it,” he said. “It was like old-school medicine.”
And he’s now going back to the basics after decades of cranking out patients to get paid by health insurers. He and his daughter Dr. Krishanna decided to stop taking health insurance altogether, moving this month to a direct primary care model, where patients pay a monthly fee for better access to the doctor.
“Instead of taking 3,000 patients, which means every 10 to 15 minutes I’m scheduling new patients, it’s every 30 minutes for the patient visit,” he said. “I literally have more time to take my time to reestablish doctor patient relationships, and really to provide primary care and preventive care at its best.”
The doctors said rising costs and regulations, decreasing reimbursements and the pressure to see more patients in less time forced them to make a change.
“It is a little scary to do it although the quality of life and the quality of patient care like you can’t even compare it to the insurance-based model,” said Dr. Krishanna Takemoto-Gentile. “It is night and day you know. I went from seeing 25 patients a day to maybe like 10. Huge game changer.”
Recent news of a proposed merger between HMSA and Hawaii Pacific Health also has some doctors questioning what they’re calling a broken system and trying to find ways to think out of the box.
“It’s not going to be for everybody, although it’s a nice option if you don’t want to wait like nine months to see a primary care doctor for 10 minutes,” she said.
And with Hawaii’s growing physician shortage, “the biggest criticism is that, well, you’re only seeing 400 patients, 500 patients versus 3,000 patients so there’d be less doctors,” Dr. Curtis added.
But the new model is keeping the doctors from the typical burnout and in the workforce longer.
“It’s humane, it’s sensible and it’s good care,” he said. “So I’m excited so instead of retiring I’m now retired from the insurance side and I’m going into private practice again without the insurance burden.”
The membership fee is $200 a month — or 24-hundred dollars a year — for adults. It also includes discounts for teens and students.
Members can still use their insurance to pay for referrals to specialists and for medicines at the pharmacy.
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