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2011 Press

InsideHealthPolicy.com, December 13, 2011:
Bipartisan Bill Would Let Medicare, Duals Join Direct Pay Primary Care
Bipartisan legislation introduced by Rep. William Cassidy (R-LA), a physician and community clinic founder, would create a new CMS demonstration program allowing Medicare and dually eligible beneficiaries to participate in practices that do not accept insurance but charge a monthly flat fee for all primary care services. Cassidy tells Inside Health Policy that the direct pay care (DPC) model has greater potential to drive efficiency in health care than the far more celebrated accountable care organizations (ACOs) established under the health reform law.

Seattletimes.com, November 24, 2011:
'Concierge' health care for local union members
The state's largest private-sector union is breaking with tradition to offer members a health-insurance plan that includes unlimited primary care, arranged through a clinic system that spurns the fee-for-service system and instead asks patients for a flat monthly fee.

ModernHealthCare.com, November 23, 2011:
Washington's Employee Unions Like Qliance's Direct Primary Care Costs
Seattle's Qliance runs an ever-expanding group of "direct primary care" clinics (see our earlier profile), the latest to open in Tacoma. It's an ever-expanding field, actually–in Seattle, besides, Qliance, you can stop in for primary care at ZoomCare and Doctors Express.

ModernHealthCare.com, October 24, 2011: Dealing direct. To save money, these docs don't accept insurance
While retainer-based medical practices offering care known as concierge medicine have taken some heat over the years for charging big bucks to patients for improved access and added amenities, some view a different form of retainer care as a cost-saving approach.

FreelanceMD.com, Sept 19, 2011: A Direct Primary Care: RIP Marcus Welby
"Physicians in North Carolina, Seattle, Northern California and elsewhere are proving what the rest of the world already knows. Highly functioning primary care results in less money spent and better health outcomes."

CNBC.com, Sept 12, 2011: A Low-Cost Short Cut to Primary Health Care
"Direct primary care (DPC), a low-cost alternative to conventional health care, works much like this and is sometimes described as the middle-class version of “concierge” or “boutique” medical practices started in the 1990s to cater to the wealthy."

Puget Sound Business Journal, Sept 2, 2011: Qliance expanding again, eyes out-of-state markets
"Locally, Qliance is investing in a new clinic, in Tacoma, and has affiliated with a two-doctor practice in Mill Creek, further fleshing out its presence in the Puget Sound region." Login to bizjournals.com to read the full article.

Xconomy.com, Aug 1, 2011: What I Learned About Healthcare as a Patient: The Delivery System Has Got to Change
"I’ve been thinking about how awful U.S. healthcare is the past couple weeks, based on my latest experience as a patient. It’s made me wonder if there’s any lesson to be learned for the biotech business. And here’s what I keep coming back to: Healthcare innovators who want to prosper need to find new ways to engage with patients, and really help them, outside the usual channels offered by the hospital-insurance-industrial complex."

American Medical News, Aug 1, 2011: Direct Primary Care Model: A provision in the health reform law might provide a big boost to a little-known type of primary care.
"A small but enthusiastic minority of primary care physicians believe they have found a practice model that can save money, improve patients' long-term health and drastically reduce administrative hassles: direct primary care."

InsideHealthPolicy.com, July 26, 2011: Direct Pay Medical Home Stakeholders Say Exchange Reg Is ‘Good Start’

Business Insider, July 5, 2011: This Health Care Startup Is Getting Millions From Jeff Bezos And Michael Dell
"If you're covered by Qliance Medical Group you get unlimited care from your doctor for a flat monthly fee -- no health insurance necessary."

San Francisco Chronicle, July 5, 2011: Qliance offers middle class concierge health care
"Over the past decade, many doctors have established "concierge" practices that offer highly attentive care to ultra-wealthy customers who pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month. Qliance founder and internist Garrison Bliss watched as some of his former partners started one of the first concierge practices, known as MD2, in 1996."

Bloomberg Businessweek, June 30, 2011: Qliance: Concierge Health Care for the Middle Class
"The Seattle-area medical group has raised $13.5 million from the likes of Michael Dell and Jeff Bezos to expand its affordable, high-quality health care"

US News & World Report, June 23, 2011: How to See a Doctor—Stat
"Another innovation to improve access is the "concierge" or direct-pay medical practice, where patients pay a monthly or annual membership fee directly to the doctor—rather than to the insurance company."

Time.com, June 21, 2011: Decent Health Care Without the Insurance
"These providers bill patients a low per-month fee in exchange for unlimited office visits with primary-care doctors."

ScrubsandSuits.com, June 13 2011: Direct-Pay Primary Care Doctors: A Solution to the Broken System or Breaking the Law?
"As the great healthcare reform debate rages on, there’s one thing everyone agrees on: the system needs to be fixed. With the existing insurance model, doctors are paid for procedures and tests instead of time spent with patients."

KevinMD.com, May 2011: Direct primary care and a do it yourself health plan
"I’ve listed below components of our “Do it Yourself Health Plan.” With the makeup of KevinMD.com’s readership, I hope there’s suggestions on what we could do that would be better/smarter as someone that doesn’t have the luxury of an employer provided insurance plan."

TechCrunch, Apr 30, 2011: How DIY Health Reform Can Help You Win The Talent Wars
"When I left Microsoft 8 years ago, my wife expressed only one concern — losing health benefits. At the time, I told her that it’s just a matter of paying those costs directly."

Kaiser Health News, Apr 21, 2011: A Novel Way To Get Unlimited Primary Care
"Michelle Andrews, author of KHN’s 'Insuring Your Health' weekly feature, talks with Jackie Judd about clinics that charge a patient a monthly fee – usually around $65 – for unlimited access to physicians and nurse practitioners."

All Business, Apr 2011: Health Care Reform Offers New Challenges, Opportunities for Small Businesses
"One year after the PPACA became law, the debate over its impact -- and calls for its repeal -- continue around the country. In spite of the controversy, however, many small businesses and some insurers say they now view the law as an opportunity rather than an obstacle."

Seattle PI, April 3, 2011: Calling startups to action: Do-it-Yourself Healthcare Reform
"I believe their disruptive model gives startups a chance to leapfrog the talent war competitors by nimbly including a model described below called “Direct Primary Care."

Reuters - VIDEO, Mar 2011: Entrepreneur's Edge: Qliance
"Reuters Small Business profiles startups across the country. Seattle, Washington-based Qliance Medical Group operates clinics that charge patients a monthly fee and treat people regardless of whether or not they have health insurance."

Huffington Post, Mar 9, 2011: Direct Primary Care: Skip The Insurer, Get Better Health Care?
"Health insurance costs have skyrocketed, making preventative care a near-impossibility for many Americans. But a unique system has sprung up, skirting around the insurance industry entirely: direct primary care practices. And the impact, proponents say, isn't just financial. Direct primary care clinics could dramatically increase the quality of health care, too."

WTOP, Mar 9, 2011: A health care trend to subsantially lower monthly premiums
"A West Coast trend that makes monthly health care payments more affordable is catching on across the country."Direct pay primary care" is the kind of medical care that some rich folks already get, where you pay a set monthly fee for unlimited visits to the doctor. Now there's a move to make it affordable for the rest of public."

Kaiser Health News, Mar 8, 2011: Some Medical Practices Move To Monthly Membership Fees For Patients
"Just about everyone agrees that the way we pay for primary care needs fixing. Under the current insurance model, doctors get paid for procedures and tests rather than for time spent with patients, which displeases doctors and patients alike and increases costs." Read this article again at the Washington Post.

Holistic Primary Care, Spring 2011: When the Bubble Bursts: An Interview with Dr. Garrison Bliss
"Dr. Bliss is determined to prove that the best clinical outcomes and cost-efficiencies occur when practitioners are directly accountable to patients without mediation of fiscally-motivated third parties. He has worked at the clinical and policy levels to, as he says, 'move direct practice away from the fringe and into the mainstream.'"

HealthLeaders Media, Feb 25, 2011: Primary Care With a Twist: Docs Go Uninsured
"Boutique medical practices aren't new, and in a sense, Garrison Bliss's practice is as much a boutique as any of them. But to take a look at what it costs his patients to come there, and the first word that comes to mind to describe it most definitely wouldn't be "boutique."

Hartford Courant, Feb 25, 2011: Offering Medical Service, No Insurance Allowed
"It's also an example of a growing grass-roots movement among some primary-care doctors in the U.S. to cut out the insurer as a billing middleman. Charging patients a monthly fee at half the price of cable television is an attractive way to offer some medical services to the uninsured, or people who have limited, high-deductible health plans, the doctors say."

California Healthline, Feb 24, 2011: Questions Raised About Oversight of Concierge-Style Health Providers
"Beginning in 2014, the federal health reform law will allow direct primary care practices to market their coverage alongside traditional health plans in health insurance exchanges."

San Francisco Daily Journal, Feb 23, 2011: New Direct Primary Care Plans Bypass Insurers and Regulators
"Direct Primary Care is an outgrowth of what's known as 'concierge' practices. Concierge practices target wealthy clientele, who pay a doctor a retainer on top of their regular insurance for top-of-the-line primary care, home visits and spa-like atmosphere. Direct primary care, with its lower rates and traditional medical services, is considered the middle-class version."

Puget Sound Business Journal, Jan 28, 2011: Health Care of the Future: Revolutionary Thinking
Questions for Dr. Garrison Bliss, chief medical officer of Qliance Medical Management and president of Qliance Medical Group of Washington [print edition only]