Austin news station airs family physicians’ concerns

An NBC television news station in Austin aired managed care and physician supply concerns in a segment called “The Demise of the Family Doctor.” The Nov. 26 KXAN story featured two Austin family physicians who transformed their traditional family medicine practices when low reimbursement made that model increasingly difficult to maintain.

Charles B. Mallett, M.D., switched to a fee-for-service practice that charges a base price for an office visit and does not validate insurance claims. If patients have insurance and want reimbursement, they file the claim with their insurance provider. “If you get shorted 20, 30, 40 dollars per person, per day, that’s your profit, that’s why you go out of business,” Mallett said in the broadcast.

After nearly 30 years in family medicine, TAFP member William E. Jones, M.D., opened a concierge family medicine practice with his son, Mason D. Jones, M.D. “I was being forced to see too many patients in a day in order to remain solvent,” William Jones told the reporter. “At that point I was 61 years old, and I said, ‘Look, I’ve got to find a different paradigm.’ If I can’t find another way to do this, then I’m going to retire.”

Patients at Concierge Family Medicine pay a flat annual rate and can come in for an office visit, often on the same day they call, and can reach the physicians at home or on their cell phones 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The broadcast also highlighted key points from the Primary Care Coalition’s advocacy document, “Fractured: the State of Health Care in Texas” and provided a link to the PDF version of the report and the TAFP Web site. Watch the news segment and read the accompanying article on KXAN’s Web site.