Finances

As health care costs have gotten higher and higher, and as the insurance industry worked to siphon off more of the money paid for health care for their executives and shareholders, a new phenomenon emerged in the health care marketplace called ‘managed care.”

It works like this: there is a limited amount of money available in the health care world, and if insurance companies want an ever-increasing share of it, they have only a few options. They can charge more for insurance, and give less coverage for the money, and they do. They can reimburse doctors less, and they do. And this results in doctors having to see increased numbers of patients, for shorter amounts of time, giving the minimum possible amounts of service, to make up for the reduced reimbursement, and they do.

A better name for “managed care” might be “limited care with managed expenses,” although some appropriately call it “mangled care.”

We choose not to participate in this system, for a variety of reasons. Our aspiration is to provide the best possible care, not the cheapest. First of all, we see patients for extended visits, which we feel are necessary to provide the best care, and the insurance system doesn’t accommodate for that kind of visit. Secondly, many of the modalities we use are unknown to the insurance industry, and thus, not reimbursable. Thirdly, we prefer the model of preventive health care, and the insurance industry is based on a crisis intervention model.

For these reasons we do not participate at this time in any managed care networks. Most of our patients pay for our services themselves, with cash, checks, or credit cards. This gives you maximum control of your health care.

As a courtesy to you, we can usually arrange to work with your insurance company if you have applicable non-network coverage, or if you have been involved in a work or automobile accident.

Please call us at 303-394-4204 to discuss your specific situation. We don’t want finances to keep you from the opportunity to get well.