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LAREDO — For 12 hours a day, the waiting room at Dr. Gustavo
Villarreal’s family practice is often packed with patients, people who will pay
a flat $50 fee for the convenience — or necessity — of a walk-in,
quick-turn doctor’s visit. Villarreal’s practice, which does not accept any
form of health insurance, has thrived despite its location in a city where
nearly one-third of the population lives below the federal poverty line.
At both the state and federal level, efforts are underway to
decrease Texas' sky-high rate of residents without health coverage. But
Villarreal is among a rising number of primary care practitioners who have
given up on the red tape of filing insurance claims, switching to a cash-based
model that is growing in popularity among Texas’ insured and uninsured
patients.
Doctors who use this model, which they call “direct primary
care,” say they can keep their costs competitive by avoiding the bureaucracy of
the health insurance system and the high processing costs — including
additional staff — associated with accepting coverage.
“It had always been affordable and possible to maintain a
practice with what insurance and patients paid, but about 10 or 15 years ago,
you started seeing a decline” in revenue, said Villarreal, who switched his
traditional family practice to its current business model in 2012.
Most doctors limit their services to basic or preventive care — treatment their patients can afford without turning to their insurance providers — such as prescribing medicine for colds and infections, treating minor lesions and overseeing long-term care for conditions like diabetes and osteoporosis.
Most doctors limit their services to basic or preventive care — treatment their patients can afford without turning to their insurance providers — such as prescribing medicine for colds and infections, treating minor lesions and overseeing long-term care for conditions like diabetes and osteoporosis.
Read the full story: www.texastribune.org
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