Fri. May 3rd, 2024

The Annals of Family Medicine came out and the editorial was interesting. It looks like the author is trying to avenge us. Dr. Kurt Stange titled it Time for Family Medicine to Stop Enabling a Dysfunctional Health Care System and mystically, he seems to be at his wit’s end.

The many well-intentioned patches designed to improve primary care have added untenable administrative burden, made care less available and less open to the patient’s agenda, and have diminished and demoralized the workforce.

Of course, we all knew this would happen. When the alphabet organizations agreed to everything the insurance companies and government wanted, we were always going to get screwed.

Thankfully, Dr. Stange says this:

We already see glimmers of possibility for re-energizing the role of the personal family physician in the actions of direct primary care physicians who care for mixed panels of working poor and more-advantaged patients, charging an accessible monthly subscription fee to assure all primary care for panels of around 500 patients.

DPC is not a glimmer. We are in the end game, Dr. Stange, and DPC is the only light left.

Check out the article and tell me what you think.

168240cookie-checkEnabling a Dysfunctional Health Care System
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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.

One thought on “Enabling a Dysfunctional Health Care System”
  1. Has many good points except:
    We see the systemic possibilities in physician-led accountable care organizations that have improved quality and controlled costs by investing in on-the-ground knowing and relationships and use that capital to selectively contract for targeted use of more specialized services.
    Unsure the meaning of the above.
    Also speaks from the outside looking in.

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