To see a traditional fee-for-service doctor these days you may have to wait 1 month for an appointment or longer, and then wait an hour or more while sitting in the reception area along with sneezing, drooling, belching, coughing patients in order to see the doctor for 5, or if you’re lucky, 10 minutes.
The patient experience generally sucks. Snarling intake clerks hiding safely behind glass windows hand you a clip board with barked instructions to “Fill this out, all six pages, make sure you leave nothing out, and turn it back in to me!” Included are legal documents no one ever reads but should. “You agree to pay whatever we decide to bill you.”
An hour past your appointment time you are ordered to the back, weighed, blood pressure taken and then led into a small cubicle. “What brings you here today?” askes the bored nurse, chewing gum as she impatiently glances at her Mickey Mouse watch. She pounds a keyboard as you tell your sad story. “Ok, the doctor will be right with you” she lies as she closes the door leaving you alone to view wall charts of the human anatomy.
Minutes pass. More minutes pass. You have memorized the anatomy charts. You begin counting the tiles on the floor. More minutes pass. The urge to leave is tempered by thoughts of God bursting through the door with a cure at any minute now……..More counting of floor tiles, ever intense desire to peek into drawers, back to reviewing the wall charts……more minutes tick by then…………!
A knock on the door and before you can say ‘Who is it?’ God bursts into the room and says “Well, well. I understand you have a throbbing headache and generally feel puny. Let’s listen to your heart……. Yep, you have one!” he says. “I’m going to prescribe a medication that will make you feel better. Have a good day” he says as he exits the room barely five minutes after entering.
This experience is not uncommon. It’s the norm. It’s the reason virtual primary care and direct primary care is growing faster than a melting raspa on an August afternoon in deep South Texas.
You never know what a traditional fee-for-service primary care visit can lead to. A routine visit priced at <$100 can end up costing hundreds more. An Electrical Physical? How Much Is That?
