To keep a long story short, about 3 years ago my grandmother's lower limbs and feet had diffuse venous stasis ulcers and pressure wounds. I'm guessing ischemic ulcers as well (her hallux auto-amputated itself at about the 1st MPJ level and many wounds were full thickness). For 2 years running a podiatrist has been coming to her home. At first it was about once or twice a week, then once or twice a month, and now the visits are monthly. The podiatrist would debride, apply hydrogels, dress the wounds, etc. Her condition has improved dramatically, it may have been limb/life-saving.
I shadowed this podiatrist for a half day last week. She saw 7 patients in 4.5 hours. Her trunk looked like a hospital wound care clinic on wheels. Also, I've seen my grandmother's bills and I'm guessing this podiatrist's little side business is pretty profitable.
Although it's admirable and a needed service, don't start counting this doctor's money so fast. Most insurance companies pay LESS for visits in the home or services provided in the home. No, they don't take into account the time or travel expenses. Their view is that there is no overhead when at a patient's home (no rent, electricity, equipment costs, staff costs, etc.) and therefore pay at a lower rate.
Additionally, did you see the bill for the services or actual amount PAID??? There's often a HUGE difference. If our practice received anywhere NEAR what we actually billed (not received), we'd all be retired and I'd be writing this from my yacht in the Riviera.
Our office would be bankrupt if we saw 7 patients in 4.5 hours. As an average, in our practice we would each see about 27 patients in that same time.
One more point. Although I'm not implying that this doctor bills inappropriately or unethically, those practices do exist in our profession and all professions. It is very easy to bill big numbers and even get paid big numbers, but if audited the result is often not so pretty.
I served on an insurance panel and a DPM who performed ONLY housecalls was audited. He received (not billed) $835,000 average over the prior 3 years. That's a huge number for one doctor with no office performing only house calls. Because realistically, when performing housecalls there is a finite number of patients you can see daily. This doctor had no office, no staff, etc., so that $835,000 was basically pure profit less his travel/auto expenses.
The audit revealed that he billed ridiculous amounts for each visit. He often billed multiple procedures on one patient. According to each patient when interviewed, he was basically just performing palliative/routine foot care, yet his average bill per patient exceeded $600 per visit.
The authorities knocked on his door for the investigation and he had no documentation, no charts, etc., etc. You do NOT want to know the sad ending of this story.
But to answer your original question, there are many DPM's who enjoy making housecalls and can make a fair living doing that if they are billing ethically.
