As Nancy Pelosi famously stated a few years ago, “you have to pass it to know what’s in it”, we are all now just finding out the repercussions the ACA (Obamacare) is having on US Healthcare.
Aside from skyrocketing premiums and deductibles, penalties for not having “approved insurance”, penalties and taxes on employers and employees for good plans and benefits, probably one of the most dangerous long term consequences is what it is doing to the people who have the sole knowledge and skill to treat patients- the physicians. Inundated with new regulatory measures, such as implementation of inefficient electronic health record systems (that do not communicate with each other and not standardized), ICD-10 coding and insurance reimbursement issues, the brightest students are shying away from medicine. When we read about massive increases in physician burnout and career dissatisfaction, that only translates into lower quality care to patients. Dr. Bailie had been experiencing this over the last few years in a large group practice setting and thus AZISKS was born. Instead of using mid-level providers and hiring more staff and increasing inefficiencies, which ultimately burdens patients and physicians alike, he has chosen to go back to the basics and make healthcare about the PATIENT-PHYSICIAN PARTNERSHIP.
As there are only 2 people in the large web of healthcare that actually really care about outcomes and quality care- the patient and the provider. All of the others are concerned about their bottom line and have no interest in true cost-efficient quality. He has experienced this first hand during his discussions with health plans during his transition. Despite being one of a few surgeons with actual outcomes data that clearly demonstrate his high quality of care, many carriers were only interested in large groups, despite the fact that quality and care may suffer. Physician satisfaction directly correlates with quality of care and patient satisfaction. To achieve this, and avoid being part of the statistic reported in this article, he has created a new specialty practice business model predicated on the idea that patient customer service actually is the highest priority. At AZISKS, patients will never wait on hold for eternity, reach staff who are not informed, get transferred to multiple people to get a simple question answered, be treated with anything other than respect and a friendly staff member and, most importantly, will NEVER see anyone but the specialist they desire to see, Dr. Bailie. We are hopeful the the medical community will embrace returning healthcare to the providers and patients and restore the greatest healthcare system in the world back to its former self. All of us need the brightest and best to consider healthcare as a profession and only when we can change what is reported in this article will that occur.
