SC doctors say the health system is broken, so they’re building their own

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) – Health care is a $4.5 trillion industry. Doctors say profit often comes before care. They feel that patients suffer because of it.

Dr. Sandra Rosado is a bilingual doctor who has dreamed of this profession since childhood. But in his 20-year career, that dream quickly faded.

Dr. Rosado said: “I am convinced that health care does not take the patient into account. “It’s just business and that’s the sad part.”

He says a former employer pressured him to do an unnecessary audit and offered bonuses for meeting quotas.

Rosado said: “They forced me to give certain drugs because it was more attractive and it was a drug that could cause injury.

Dr. Chris McCarthy and Dr. Jerome Aya-Ay founded Palmetto Proactive in Spartanburg. They say the health system is broken.

“Yeah, it’s really broken in all areas,” McCarthy said.

They say that quality time spent with a patient is essential to their overall care and is often lacking in systems involving health insurance or larger hospital systems.

“Face-to-face time with a doctor is 7-8 minutes,” Aya-Ay said. “It’s not time. You are scheduled every 15 minutes.”

Dr. Anderson’s Shane Purcell says people in the middle of the system often contribute to high care costs.

“A few weeks later you’re like, how could this happen? I got two minutes with the doctor and my bill is $300 or my insurance didn’t cover it,” Dr. Purcell said. “There are a lot of insurance problems.”

That’s why these doctors are taking the health care system into their own hands and ditching health insurance. Instead, they run their own system called Direct Primary Care.

“It’s like Netflix,” McCarthy said. “You can watch as many programs as you want or no programs at all. So you can come to the office as often as you need and there is no interruption.”

For a monthly fee, patients receive unlimited doctor visits, annual checkups, flu tests, urgent care needs, x-rays, and more.

“We’re going to put in stitches when somebody cuts a finger, or certain skin conditions, if we can handle it we’re going to take care of skin cancer we’re going to do that,” McCarthy said.

Some business owners, like Kenneth Cribb, now use this health plan as an option for their employees.

“The face time you spend is unprecedented,” Cribb said. “You don’t feel like a sheep. It’s not often you spend 30-40 minutes with your doctors.”

Cribb is the owner of Hub City Hospitality. He believes it is a viable option. Hub City’s Vice President of Human Resources, John Trone, says their company covers about 50% of the DPC plan for employees.

“So it costs them about $6.92 a salary,” Trone said.

Because they are paid weekly about $28 per month out of pocket by the employees to use the DPC.

“I had to get an x-ray and I was in and out in 10 minutes, that was part of my plan,” Cribb said. Many things they offer as part of their monthly plan.

McCarthy says that when they went into medicine, it was all about taking care of patients.

“We’ve seen in the last 20 years a lot of people have been put into that relationship,” McCarthy said. “There are many people between the doctor and the patient.”

But with DPC there are no middlemen, only the doctor and the patient.

Dr. “If it’s a new patient, I read an hour or two,” Rosado said. “I just want to make sure we have a conversation, I know all about you. You understand how we work, and I can be of good service to you. “

Cribb said he also offers a health share plan and regular health insurance to his employees as well. He says that workers often combine DPC with the health plan because there are incentives to do so. The monthly cost of DPC is usually between $60-80 per month. For exact prices visit their websites below.

Ardane Medical – Snack

Palmetto Proactive – Greenville and Spartanburg

Direct Access MD – Anderson

Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.