Education

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Helping Direct Primary Care Practices to Follow Best Practices and Compliance Procedures

By: Dr. Kimberly Legg Corba
This manual, developed by Kimberly Legg Corba, DO in conjunction with health care attorney Dennis Hursh, is currently used in her practice. Dr. Corba is the owner of Green Hills Direct Family Care, a Direct Primary Care family practice. The editable documents available here can help doctors who are choosing to open a Direct Primary Care office worry less about policies and procedures. This will give physicians who choose the DPC model more time with their patients while they continue to grow their practices.

Learn More and Buy a Copy 

Grow Your DPC Practice: 5 Top Strategies to Add New Patients

By: Spruce Health
Whether you’ve already launched your direct primary care (DPC) practice or you’re still planning for it, you’ve likely been putting significant thought into how you can find and attract new patients. Your goal may be a panel of five- or six-hundred total, or maybe you want to open multiple locations and care for thousands. Maybe you’re still working out back-of-the-napkin math and simply wondering where your first ten or twenty people will come from.

Download the full Article Here

Health Savings Accounts & Direct Primary Care

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a vehicle patients may use (the employer may contribute) to save for healthcare expenses on a pre-tax basis. A Qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) is the type of plan design that a patient/participant MUST be enrolled in to be able to contribute to an HSA. Many in our free market space promote use of HDHPs in conjunction with Health Savings Accounts.

Download the full Article Here

Secrets of Direct Primary Care – 5 Keys to Landing Employer Contracts

How to guide for DPC physicians working with employers

By: Spruce Health
There’s nothing that can take your direct primary care (DPC) practice to the next level like landing an employer contract, but they can seem overwhelming to negotiate. This in-depth guide will help you accomplish this goal.

Download the full Booklet Here
Download WEBINAR

Saving the Patient-Doctor Relationship

Re-focusing our healthcare system

By: Daniel Milyavsky with the Benjamin Rush Institute
How electronic health records, bureaucracy, and endless regulations increasingly strain physicians’ relationships with their patients, and how we can fix it.

Download Part 1 of the Booklet Here
Download Part 2 of the Booklet Here

Self-Funded Employer’s Guide to Finding a Free Market Friendly TPA

Transparency is vital to a self-funded health Plan

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
Transparency from an independent TPA is not scrutinized as closely as the free market movement in the provider sphere. However, it is just as important for the TPA to embrace transparency in their own business as it is for providers.

Download the full Article Here

The Value of the Free Market to Self-Funded Employers

Why is the Free Market important to you?

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
The free market movement in healthcare is vital to fixing the problems with our country’s current healthcare delivery system. The Free Market Medical Association was founded based on three pillars: Price, Value, and Equality. These pillars are essential to the long term success of self-funded health plans.

Healthcare transparency provides you and your employees with the information and the incentive to choose healthcare providers based on value. Value is not just about price; but rather price and quality. Your employees are inundated with media, advertising, and hype that incorrectly informs them that valuable healthcare has to be expensive; the highest quality will cost more. However, the quality of healthcare is not related to the price in the way consumers are taught to shop for other goods and services. Better quality care is almost always a LOWER price. High quality and low complication rates combined with efficiency enables these providers to charge far less than a low value choice.

Download the full Article Here

Approaching Businesses to Promote DPC as a Group Benefit

By: Dr. Jeff Davenport, One Focus Medical
In this article, I want to share with you my experiences regarding Direct Primary Care physicians and practices marketing directly to business owners. As the first Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice in the state of OK, and a member of the Free Market Medical Association, I have extensive experience in breaking the ice in areas where there is no knowledge of DPC, and the concept seems too good to be true.

Download the full Article Here

Connecting with Self-Funded Employers FAQ

These are the most frequently asked questions of the FMMA about interacting with Employers. There are no easy answers or miracle ‘how to’s’.

Download the full Article Here

Glossary of Terms for Employee Benefit Plans

ACA – Affordable Care Act
Also know as:

• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
• Healthcare Reform
• Obamacare

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the the hotly contested health reform bill into law which made significant changes to the way employers and employees purchased health benefits, along with significant changes to the healthcare delivery system. The goals of the ACA were to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance, lower the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government.

Download the full Article Here

Why DPC?

By Dr. Jeff Davenport, One Focus Medical
Six years in a large east coast health system spent training clinical teams, residents, administrators, patients and families in clinical quality improvement methods, and conducting population-based outcomes research propelled me to these questions 6 months ago:

• Can big systems do this?
• Are they capable?
• Or do we need a grassroots innovation by doctors, patients, and employers to demonstrate real value for consumers in healthcare.

Download the full Article Here

Self-insured Employers Creating Opportunities For Independent Physicians

At the January 2015 American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) conference in New Orleans, Jay Kempton explained self-funding and the benefits of independent physicians and facilities working directly with self-funded employers. It is a win-win-win for physicians, patients, and employers.

Watch the Video

Closing the Gap between Buyer and Seller

Product Design: The Importance of Complete Bundles

By: Sean Kelley
The Free Market Medical Association and its members have defined and stand behind the three pillars of a free market: price, value and equality. These pillars are not window-dressings; they are foundational to the well-functioning of any market where price represents the agreement of value to buyers and sellers. Today’s focus is the importance of product design; the underlying reasons why it is so wrong today and how the free market pillars correct it.

Download the full Article Here

FMMA Glossary of Terms

ACA – Affordable Care Act
Also know as:

• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
• Healthcare Reform
• Obamacare

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the health reform bill into law which made significant changes to the way employers and employees purchased health benefits, along with significant changes to the healthcare delivery system. The goals of the ACA were to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance, lower the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. Since it’s passage, the law has been challenged in court numerous times by states, private industry, and others for a number of it’s provisions.

Download the full Glossary Here

Corporate Welfare that Fiscal Conservatives Smile About: Insure Oklahoma Expands Again

Hinges on Low Employee Wages

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
In April 2004, Senate Bill 1546 authorized the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to develop Insure Oklahoma, a program to assist Oklahomans with obtaining and/or affording health insurance funded from an expansion of the tobacco tax. The employer reimbursement division of the program is known as The Oklahoma Employer/Employee Partnership for Insurance Coverage (O-EPIC), which provides small employers subsidies to reduce the employee portion of employer’s health plan. O-EPIC was originally intended for small employers with fewer than 25 employees.

Download the full Article Here

Crash-and-Switch:

Three Easy Steps to Single Payer

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
This week a news article is making the rounds from our friends to the north about a 68 year old patient who is recovering from major surgery in the hallway of their local hospital. Unfortunately, it is only one of many such stories we hear about on a regular basis, many of which do not end up being shared on social media. This article is shocking to those of us who consider this type of treatment barbaric, and not up to the standard of care we are used to seeing in the United States. However, what is more shocking than the article, are the comments in this linked article and in sites where the article is available.

Download the full Article Here

Application of Pricing Transparency by a TPA

My Experience

By: Maged Sedky, Ocean Surgery Center
During the past few years, as Ocean Surgery Center —a fully transparent, multi-specialty, California ASC— began to embrace the free market and we were looking for like-minded support, I have found myself traveling to Oklahoma. To some of you, this may seem odd; but Oklahoma is the hot seat, the root of the grassroots movement, of the free market.
Two of my trips were to attend the Free Market Medical Association’s Annual Conference; the conference has become a yearly pilgrimage for the transparency faithful.

Download the full Article Here

Legislating via “FAQ”

The Nightmare of Determining What is Considered a Preventive Service Under the ACA

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
For many, understanding how benefits will be paid since the passage of the ACA has become an increasing headache. Instead of a clear outline of benefits, insurers, TPAs, and other claims payers, have been forced to indicate a service will be paid in accordance with a “mandate.” The “preventive care” mandate is not defined in the law. Instead, regulations were issued by various government agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Labor (DOL). These rules and regulations purportedly defining preventive services are constantly changing about how a particular service is “interpreted” under the law. This is particularly frustrating when dealing with preventive care benefits.

Download the full Article Here

Move Along, Nothing to See Here

Business as Usual at Healthcare.gov

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
Oops I Did it Again… As you may have heard, more than 800,000 participants who purchased policies on the federally created Marketplace Exchanges have received incorrect tax documents from the marketplace overseers. These tax forms are the ACA mandated 1095-A IRS form for individual tax payers. One critical piece of information that was included on the forms from the Exchanges is used to determine the amount of premium tax credit (subsidy) an individual was eligible to receive. This piece of information, which could drastically alter what a citizen’s tax liability would be for 2014, was calculated incorrectly for nearly 20% of participants of the federal Exchange.

Download the full Article Here

Online Marketing Strategy

For New Direct Primary Care Providers

By: Mindy Gasspari McClure
Happy Free Market Friday! Congratulations on making the decision to become a “Direct Care” provider. Your participation in this movement is key to the overall success of this revolution.
Who is Mindy Gasspari McClure?
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mindy Gasspari McClure. For the last 8 months I have partnered with the 1st Direct Primary Care practice in the state of Oklahoma, One Focus Medical. My passion for DPC and the Free Market Medical Association has become my primary focus in my business. After 15+ years in the banking industry I decided to take a leap of faith and branch out on my own. Currently, I am an Independent Consultant specializing in Business Development, Digital Marketing, Social Media Management, etc. My own personal experience with the DPC model is the reason for my dedication to this movement and my continued interest of its success.

Download the full Article Here

Patient Experience is #1 with Free Market Providers

Quality is never an accident…

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
…it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. –William A Foster
One of the most important pieces of the Free Market Movement is not just saving patients money and creating a better work environment for providers, but how different the patient experience can be. After nearly 4 years of working with Free Market providers, we have so many patients who have commented on not only the quality, but also how differently they are treated.

Download the full Article Here

Free Market Friday

Protect Patients and Doctors

By: Michael C. Carnuccio
(to read the original article click here)
During the upcoming legislative session, policymakers will address numerous issues. Health care policy needs their attention.
In Oklahoma and across the country, despite the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, health care costs are still growing and consuming more of family, employer and government budgets. Including the legislation, administrative regulations and related documents, Obamacare exceeds thousands of pages. Yet when addressing their health care needs, citizens still feel overwhelmed. People feel like just a number and not a name, continuing to see rising costs and having to endure the hassles of bureaucracy and a middleman – yet for many procedures none is needed.

Download the full Article Here

Rapidly Increasing Costs and Gag Orders on Docs

By: Meg Freedman, Executive Director
It’s been a while since we updated you in this newsletter about the most recent adversities in the U.S. healthcare system. Costs continue to skyrocket and the ACA fan foibles continue to pile up.
RX Costs – What we knew:
Last year the cost of a decades-old drug Acthar, rumored not to be effective in treating ANY illness, increased in cost to $41,763 per prescription.
In July of 2015, Glumetza, a very common diabetes drug, increased overnight from $100 per month to more than $2,500 per month.

Download the full Article Here

Oklahoma Pharmacists Seek More Transparency in Generic Prescription Drug Pricing, Payments

By B. Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA
The cost of medications for both small town Oklahoma pharmacies and the citizens they serve continues to skyrocket as out-of-state Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) corporations make multi-billion dollar profits. Bipartisan legislation (S.B. 1150) pending this session would bring greater transparency to the prescription drug pricing and reimbursement process to benefit Oklahoma patients and locally owned community pharmacies.

Download the full Article Here