Fri. May 3rd, 2024

Here is a nice article about the Capitol Forum’s Health Care Competition Conference at the National Press Club recently. It’s called Private Equity, For-Profit Interests Hurt Medicine, Conference Speakers Say, and centers on a discussion with Dr. Mitch Li, a friend of the DPC world, who runs Take Medicine Back. Here are the highlights:

  • Li doesn’t blame the pandemic. Rather, he blames “the consolidation and opportunism” of private equity firms, which have taken advantage of the situation COVID created — struggling smaller hospitals and practices became even more vulnerable, while the flow of government dollars, such as CARES ACT funding,opens in a new tab or window increased, he noted.
  • Marco Fernandez, MD, president of Midwest Anesthesia Partners in Arlington Heights, Illinois, said he and the over 30 physicians he works with were “blindsided” after losing a couple of contracts to private-equity owned groups
  • Hayden Rooke-Ley, JD, of Healthcare for All Oregon, pointed out that historically, states — through legislation, attorneys general, or state medical boards — instituted bans on the “corporate practice of medicine” (CPOM) decades ago. But a growing number of exemptions and “smart lawyers” have essentially gutted those bans, he said.

Why am I writing this? Well, I believe DINOs will do the same thing for us. My crystal ball says they will try to buy up as many DPC practices as possible and then cut them to the bone. They will hijack the name, change DPC as we know it, and the results will be the same thing Mitch Li is fighting against above.

Am I being too paranoid?

Time will tell.

174810cookie-checkPrivate Equity Killing Healthcare?
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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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