Several decades of progressive bureaucratic control over healthcare have come to the forefront with the advent of ever more complicated insurance plans. This show will focus on the US healthcare delivery system and what we learned over the past three years of the pandemic response.
The COVID-19 crisis left so many Americans scrambling for care from doctors who are employed in large groups or health systems anchored with a myriad of insurance contracts. These doctors were unable to step out of the box and innovate with new protocols or offer any other modalities to treat patients and help them avoid hospitalization or worse.
Here, independent practitioners could keep their clinics open and not rely on insurance payments. They were in a cash-based business that patients welcomed. Now many look forward to independent medical practitioners who are not biased by insurance companies or the Federal Government, the media, or large health systems.
The term “direct primary care” or “direct clinical practice” has been applied to this new genre of physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who accept cash payments and are not restricted to any particular insurance plan or insurance product. With high co-pay and very high deductible plans, an average patient, fully insured, would pay more to doctor’s offices contracting with those insurances than they would in a direct care model.
Thus, direct care is an opportunity to access physicians with a completely independent medical practice who are able to use their judgment and provide the best overall treatment plan for such a patient. This has recently come to my attention, an announcement of a recent ICD code that will be in place for COVID-19 unvaccinated. There are significant concerns that such a code will be encouraged and later mandated for each and every chart in the country, then healthcare insurance, clinics, hospitals, and other organizations may penalize someone for not taking a COVID-19 vaccine.
The advantage of a direct clinical practice is the medical records state entirely private, with no reporting of any medical information outside of that office. Many patients in today’s era are seeking that degree of independence and privacy.
This show features Dr. Brian Procter, MD, who has spent the last year converting from insurance-based practice to independent direct primary care practice. He was an early treatment specialist for COVID-19 and has published several papers on methods to treat patients and keep them out of the hospital. He has welcomed Dr. McCullough into his practice, and you can find Dr. McCullough now north of Dallas in McKinney, Texas. Dr. McCullough and Dr. Procter welcome patients who are able to have a direct office visit and then follow up in a variety of different settings.
So let’s get real, let’s get loud; on America Out Loud Talk Radio, this is The McCullough Report!
The McCullough Report: Sat | Sun 2 PM ET – Internationally recognized Dr. Peter A. McCullough, known for his iconic views on the state of medical truth in America and around the globe, pierces through the thin veil of mainstream media stories that skirt the significant issues and provide no tractable basis for durable insight. Listen on iHeart Radio, our world-class media player, or our free apps on Apple, Android, or Alexa. Each episode goes to major podcast networks early in the week and can be heard on-demand anywhere in the world.
