July 2, 2013 - In an interesting new trend, many doctors are choosing to operate outside the system all together, providing “concierge” medical services to patients on a prepaid membership-fee basis rather than on a standard insurance model. Some concierge doctors stop accepting insurance altogether and can charge as little as $38 a month, though for most people the annual fee amounts to roughly $4 to $5 per day. This system can be a win/win for doctors and patients: patients’ medical records can more easily be kept outside of the huge medical record databases; it can cut down on unnecessary treatments and, of course, high insurance costs; and it allows doctors to see fewer patients and give the ones they have more personalized care.
Most of the medical industry, however, is still stuck in this miasma of messed up medical records, poor security, and legal loopholes that allow patients’ private information to be publicly exposed.
Source: http://www.anh-usa.org/your-private-medical-records-are-being-sold-to-drug-companies/
