My Free Market Testimonials

FMMA and its founding members have been a tremendous resource and guidance in my journey to starting my own free market based practice Our Way Health. Having FMMA membership is like having a big brother you can reach out to anytime you need. A few things FMMA has already helped me with are; legal questions, health policy questions, business development, and introductions to other likeminded people.

The FMMA Annual Conference is a must attend for any healthcare provider, employer or a patient. It is not only a highly education experience but you will get to see how the “real healthcare reform” is happening in America. I am excited to be a part of this great organization and look forward to continue the good work through a local FMMA chapter in my hometown of Houston, TX.

Midwest Bone & Joint Center first learned about the Free Market Medical Association (FMMA) in 2015. We attended our first conference in OK last fall and knew from the get go that we were among like-minded people and that FMMA is the type of organization we want to be an integral part of. The organizers, Meg Freedman, Jay Kempton and Keith Smith were and are phenomenal to work with. They sincerely believe in the free market model and have provided guidance and assistance every step of the way, as we established ourselves as an endorsed free market healthcare provider. FMMA is an organization for genuine people with a united goal for healthcare reform.

Today I saw a new patient. She is a nice lady lawyer from Norman. She was willing to drive all the way from Norman to Edmond to see me and she was aware that we have a fee for service practice and that she would be paying more than her $10 co-pay and then relying on her insurance company to pay her medical costs. She knew that she may be reimbursed for her visit some, a lot, or perhaps very little. She told me some things that make me both concerned and sad. She had made an appointment to see a neurologist and was told that she could not be seen until the end of December. This note is being written in September. She had wanted to visit with a rheumatologist and was told that when she made the appointment that she could see the physician’s assistant in a couple of months and see the doctor a couple of months after that. She had an appointment to see a gastroenterologist but could not be seen for several months. She had been told by another practitioner that the doctor only took care of parts between the belly button and the pelvis. She was frustrated because her care was not only fragmented but she obviously had poor access.

There are not very many people who are very satisfied with healthcare in the United States these days. Patients find access very difficult and when they finally do get to see a physician they find that they get little time with the doctor. Physicians are equally frustrated. Recently you saw a mail chimp that showed that the average number of hours that each physician must spend on paperwork per hour of patient care is 2 to 1. Although some of this time is spent in reviewing test results, medical records, medication concerns, and simply thinking about and trying to figure out a diagnosis, a better part of that time is spent filling out paperwork required by government and state organizations, filling out codes, insurance forms, preauthorizations, electronic medical records, etc., etc. Some doctors have turned to a concierge practice, which forces them to dismiss many of their longtime patients. A concierge practice requires that a patient pay a retainer to keep a place in the practice in addition to paying co-pays and having their insurance billed at visits. For Dr. Susan Wilder, MD, the “aha” moment came a couple of years ago while crunching the numbers. Wilder, a primary care physician who worked in a small group in Scottsdale, Arizona, realized that to make ends meet she would have to see a patient every 6 to 8 minutes. “I was close to getting out of medicine,” Wilder said. “I was seeing more and more patients and their conditions were getting more and more complex as were their options for treatment. The quickest way to get a patient out of the office was to throw a prescription at every symptom. That wasn’t the way I wanted to practice medicine.” Something has to change.

Many physicians now are employed by hospitals in order to continue to stay afloat in a world where claims are continually denied and discounted. They must then abide by the rules of the hospital which in many situations will dictate to them how many patients they must see in a day and how much income they must generate. There is also the problem of “leakage”. That means that if a physician who works for a hospital wants to send their patient to the best pancreatic surgeon in town, and that pancreatic surgeon happens to work for a different hospital system, they cannot refer out of their system. That is called leakage. They get punished financially for doing so. Something has got to change.

Yes, there are market principles being discussed. Buyers, facilitators and sellers. And yes, it is an association where you can clearly voice Free Market ideas without feeling as an outsider.

Most important is the real value you get through your interaction with the members and attendees. As a proud member and supporter, please allow me to encourage you to come and Associate.

Come one, come small, medium or large groups. Together, let’s “CONSUMERIZE” healthcare services.

FMMA represents so many disparate parties interested in the same thing – changing the way the business of medical services transacts. The stagnancy of health CARE is a result of too many being paid too well for too long to keep it the same. The Association is one of the few places where innovation AND competition conspire to create better systems that lead to better outcomes – effective AND efficient. Better for everyone.

The annual conference is as dynamic an event as I’ve attended – bringing innovators with highly varied perspectives to bring open- and honest- dialog together, all interested in improving the healthcare process. The system we all operate in created itself. Any system like that ends up with a few controlling parties protecting their interests. FMMA’s conference is a unique place where real solutions are on the table. I’d encourage anyone involved in healthcare, or more importantly paying for healthcare, to get involved.

Many physicians in the Free Market Medical Association are attempting a direct primary care type of practice. Direct primary care can be done in many ways. Some family practitioners have a membership type service where a person pays a certain amount each month and can access all the medical care they need for that month for a $100 fee. They pay the $100 each month whether they access care or not, but if they need to access care 30 times in a month they can do so.

Other direct free market practitioners have adopted fee for service practice which I have here. As many of my patients tell me, “you are just like my hair girl, only you are cheaper”. The difference is, my patients do get a claim form to turn into their insurance company for services provided here. It has been fascinating how many patients choose not to bother with this at all. They know it takes a great deal of time and they may get the run-around. Many of them say it is just not worth it. Some plans are reimbursing very well and others are not. As we all know, there are many tiers and many types of medical insurance. So many people have chosen a high deductible of $5000 or $10,000. Many patients tell me they would be paying the same amount for medical care for the first $5000 of care anyway, and that it makes no difference.

You too can become a member of the Free Market Medical Association. Members are able to connect with other like-minded individuals who are motivated to change the healthcare landscape. In addition to providing networking opportunities for medical providers, the Free Market Medical Association educates facilities, self-funded businesses, third party administrators, health service vendors, and you, the patient.
The team member supporters include both longstanding free market warriors, those who are just learning about the movement, and everyone in between. Go to FMMA.ORG to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member.

The FMMA -What is in a name? What the Free Market Medical Association? It sounds like another association of docs. But when you say MARKET, it sounds like it is about buying and selling. And then there is this word FREE. The FMMA was founded by freedom loving professionals in the Healthcare sphere. The founders are passionate about a clear message. One that is much needed in the current environment of very costly health care delivery when it does not have to be. It encompasses the realm of paying for healthcare services and how it can be better managed.

Yes, there are market principles being discussed. Buyers, facilitators and sellers. And yes, it is an association where you can clearly voice Free Market ideas without feeling as an outsider.

Most important is the real value you get through your interaction with the members and attendees. As a proud member and supporter, please allow me to encourage you to come and Associate.

Come one, come small, medium or large groups. Together, let’s “CONSUMERIZE” healthcare services.

If anyone goes to my website, one will see a fee schedule that is transparent to all. In addition to this, partly out of exasperation, I have included what the government and commercial payers require physicians to do with regard to documentation of each level of service in order to get paid for each ICD-10 code (diagnosis code), and CPT code (procedural codes). You will be amazed and astonished if you look at these requirements. Your physician may be given only 6 minutes with you, but will have to spend more time than that filling out all of the required documentation and proper codes to even hope that they might get paid for their service some 3-4 months from the day of the visit.

If you google The Surgery Center of Oklahoma, you will find a center that puts their fee schedule on line. This is transparency. This is not charging $150,000 for an orthopedic procedure, knowing full well that an insurance company will pay only a portion of that, and that the rest can be written off as indigent care or non-reimbursable care which will then be reimbursed by the government.

I am the only physician who is stunned by the ready acceptance of coding by a once-proud profession. You may be the best physician in the United States and save lives daily, but if you don’t enter a proper code number for your work, you don’t get a penny. How many physicians have you heard complaining about this? If you have not heard them before you have now and they are in the Free Market Medical Association. FMMA.org