Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

An article in the Montana Free Press entitled Health care is expanding. Here’s how. came out and Dr. Bergland of Fountainhead Family Medicine got some nice press in the piece. The article was a summary of the new health laws that have been passed in Montana and are now in effect. For the DPC part there was this:

For Todd Bergland, a family physician at Fountainhead Family Med in Whitefish, one new law in particular has given stability to a style of medical practice he embarked on a year and a half ago. Senate Bill 101 sets into state statute a memo issued in December 2017 by Downing’s predecessor, Matt Rosendale, authorizing doctors to negotiate direct payments from their patients. Those “direct primary care” agreements cover an established suite of health care services, and eight clinics in Montana now operate with that model. Under SB 101, as in Rosendale’s memo, they are not considered health insurance and as such are not regulated by the state. 

But, wait, there’s more:

“It doesn’t have to be seven-minute visits and it doesn’t have to be insanely overpriced testing and it doesn’t have to be just loads of insurance company paperwork that doesn’t benefit the patient at all,” Bergland said. “There’s a better way to do it.

Feel free to read the whole article as they do a great job explaining DPC. Congratulations Dr. Bergland for being a DPC role model and getting your name out there. As his website says:

IT’S TIME TO REFLECT ON HOW WE PAY FOR HEALTHCARE

His practice website can be found here.

16220cookie-checkDr. Bergland and Fountainhead Family Medicine Gets Some Nice Press
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

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