The tweets above came from Shawn Martin, who is CEO and EVP of the AAFP. These tweets are not exactly aligned. First, he wants insurers to eliminate the administrative drag that has destroyed our jobs. Great. But why does he want insurance companies involved at all? Why coddle the middlemen?
The next tweet brags about Direct Primary Care. Finally!! Or does it? Yes, DPC docs know that insurance companies should not be in the primary care business. And our care is better than doctors in the system because we spend more time with our patients and we know them. Everybody wins in DPC, as Vance Lassey, MD often says.
Here are my questions for you:
- Does Shawn Martin endorse DPC or just want insurance companies to remove these administrative burdens?
- Am I being too hard on him because the AAFP works with the DPC Alliance to produce and run the DPC Summit?
- Do you think the AAFP will ever use any of its budget to promote and teach about DPC in residencies or other conferences?
- Do we even want the AAFP involved in DPC? They are the ones who agreed to everything that Shawn Martin is now complaining about.
I am open to your thoughts. Please leave it in the comments here or on Facebook.
I think the bottom comment is just a continuation of the the first comment. I think he is saying that DPC is able to provide excellent care without all of the administrative burden, so let’s give it a try in the FFS world. He’s waiting for them to accept the challenge. What he may not realize is that even though I am a DPC doc, I still have to do prior authorizations for my patients who choose to use their insurance because there’s no competition around here to make the price of CTs and MRIs any less expensive. BUT, I don’t do any of the other gobbledy-gook that the insurers have been pushing down the primary care throat, so yes, I DO have the time to take excellent care of my patients even if I still have to do a PA for some of them.