Last week, my team and I entered into what we called “Freedom Week.”  Yes, it was a week before July 4th but I did not want to tarnish or make light of what the actual meaning of Independence Day was for our Nation.  We simply decided it was a good time to do what we did and here are the results of it.

If you go back to my prior blog post about insurance this may make a lot more sense. Basically, I decided to let my team know there is freedom without insurance and that our patients are more free when there is no insurance.  What did we do?  If you didn’t visit with us last week, here’s how it went:

• we verified no insurance at all the entire week
• I conducted myself as I usually would by providing the best care and judgements for my patients
• at the end of the examination, patients were presented with the table of “allowables”
• patients were informed of what the insurance would normally reimburse for the services that were provided
• patients were given the opportunity to pay whatever they thought the services were worth–any or no amount, no pressure, no questions asked

So much effort (sometimes unnecessary effort) is given toward insurance.  The patient is told one thing by the insurance or their HR director, our office staff spends time verifying and getting authorizations that (again, may be accurate or terribly inaccurate) and we ultimately have to file these claims.  Mind you, I stated “effort” not money, it’s resources, efforts that could be reallocated toward taking better care of you as a patient.  Less confusion, less angst, less conflict and more concentration on your problem, devoted time to your care and personalized service.

We are not going to abandon insurance.  But think about the world without it.  Would it be possible?

#SiennaEyeDoc