I'm a huge fan of aaps and direct care. But with the gov being soooooo all about opioids right now anyone running cash based pain would need to be 100% ridiculously above board flawless
I was under the impression Medicare would pay patients back for out of network procedures/charges. My dad had his echo performed in India paid by Medicare. These forms state the opppsite. Maybe it's elective procedures that they will not reimburse.
it's set up that way to "punish" people for opting out. Full opt out doesn't pay the doc or the patient. The "non-participating" level provides some reimbursement but the full opt out is really the goal for the direct care movement.
I would be thrilled to do this but I'm not busy enough. If a motivated non-narcotic elderly pt wants my help, I don't want to lose them. If I had more pts than time, I would be thrilled to opt out/non par. The definition of success.
While I'm reasonably familiar with the avg costs of direct primary care, pain is a bit more of a mystery. If you were free of all the huge charting/overhead responsibilities of medicare/insurance, how much would it cost an avg pain patient to see you for a year or a month? (for example DPC models can often see that patient for ~1000/yr)
