Primary Care Doctors See Hope in Today's US Senate Action
"The U.S. Senate today made an important step that could expand health care coverage to more Americans while simultaneously reducing costs. The Manager's Amendment, introduced by Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this morning, includes a provision that would allow flat-fee direct primary care practices, in which patients pay a flat fee for primary and preventive care, to compete in the proposed insurance exchange. This will provide Americans more affordable health care options beyond traditional insurance."
Read the release at marketwire.com
December 17, 2009
Podcast interview with Qliance co-founder and CMO, Dr. Garrison Bliss
"Qliance Medical Management, Inc. has a different approach, which it calls “direct primary care medical homes.” These practices charge a monthly subscription fee for unlimited access to comprehensive primary, preventive and chronic management care. I really like the concept and its focus on the patient as the primary customer and user of the service. The company claims its approach can reduce overall health care costs by over half. If true, this could be the wave of the future.
In this podcast interview with Dr. Garrison Bliss, co-founder and chief medical officer of Qliance, we discuss the details."
Listen to the podcast
December 2, 2009
Health Care Reform Irony: Thousands Could be Denied Low Cost Coverage
"Ironically, the health care legislation being debated by the U.S. Senate does not allow this option. Direct primary care medical homes, which form the foundation for a high functioning, lower cost, higher service health care economy, will no longer be an option for the 50,000 Americans (a number that is growing by double digits annually) who prefer this health care delivery model."
Read the full article at the Huffingtonpost.com
Medical Home News asks is Qliance: The Last Resort? The Case for Direct Practice Models in Primary Care
"We have spent the last 50 years trying to tune up health insurance so that the health care works, and every time we fix it, care gets more expensive, less accessible and less effective. You would think that we would have figured it out by now."
Read the full article
KUOW's Ruby de Luna explores the new Qliance option for UFCW union workers
"Beginning this week the state's largest employee union will offer the Qliance plan. Qliance is not medical insurance. It's a health care service. It allows members unlimited visits to their doctor for routine care. This type of service is called direct primary care. KUOW's Ruby de Luna explains how it works."
Read the full story at kuow.org
November 12, 2009
SeattleP.I.com: Qliance Nabs First Union Health Plan
"Qliance Medical Management, the Seattle-based company that operates primary care clinics that don't accept insurance payments, has been selected for a one-year pilot program to offer services to members of Washington state's largest employee union."
Read the full article at the seattlepi.com
October 28, 2009
ENToday explores: Putting the Physician-Patient Relationship First
"With some form of health insurance overhaul likely to accelerate the trend of rising practice costs coupled with declining reimbursement for physicians, some doctors will join those who have already exited a practice model funded by insurance payments. Physicians such as Garrison Bliss, MD, a Seattle-based primary care physician and vascular surgeon John Kenagy of Belmont, MA, disgusted with governmental and insurance company constraints on how they practice medicine, have escaped health care hell by stepping away from the madness. They hearken back three-quarters of a century to pioneers like Dr. Fred Mott, an internist who established a cooperative prepayment plan for physicians serving Depression-era farmers at risk of losing their farms due to ill health."
Read the full article at ENToday.com
October 15, 2009
The Milken Report: Low-cost, High Quality Fix for Health Care - Is Qliance the Answer?
"Could there be a low-cost, high quality fix for much of what ails American health care - a fix that requires no new legislation and no additional taxes? Could such a fix help stem the exodus of primary-care physicians from medical practices and restore the personal relationship between patients and doctors? And could it possibly originate in Seattle, the city that gave us grunge rock and entertains tourists by throwing fish?"
Read the full article at marketwire.com
October 8, 2009
Qliance Named to the OnDC 100 List
The OnDC 100 competition recognizes the top 100 private companies that are contributing to the renewed and continued prosperity of our country and Qliance has been added to the list! Over 400 emerging private companies were nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders. Selection criteria included:
• Innovation
• Market potential
• Commercialization
• Stakeholder value and
• Media buzz
• Market potential
• Commercialization
• Stakeholder value and
• Media buzz
For a complete list of winners, please visit alwayson.goingon.com
October 7, 2009
Venture Beat Asks: Will Health 2.0 Start-ups Usher in Consumer-Driven Healthcare?
"As information technology drastically brings down cost and improves productivity in other sectors, healthcare remains a “cottage industry” with many barriers and inefficiencies. Healthcare really is the last frontier where technology innovations can drive profound changes and grow brand new business models."
Read the full article at venturebeat.com
"As information technology drastically brings down cost and improves productivity in other sectors, healthcare remains a “cottage industry” with many barriers and inefficiencies. Healthcare really is the last frontier where technology innovations can drive profound changes and grow brand new business models."
Read the full article at venturebeat.com
September 29, 2009
The SunBreak Asks: Can Qliance Revive Primary Health Care?
"This is the kind of story that makes Bliss's eyes light up. He calls our health insurance dependency 'learned helplessness,' and likes to reference Marcus Welby when talking about the Qliance difference. "'ou can design this so that 80 percent of American can pay for primary care out of pocket. And the other twenty percent could do it with some subsidy,' he argued. 'I'd like to prove that.' His first point is that whether you're insured or not, if you want or need quality primary care, you're mostly out of luck."
Read the full article at theSunBreak.com
September 28, 2009
Qliance CEO Norm Wu Contributes to Xconomy.com: It's About Health Care, Not Health Insurance
"Health care reform discussions almost always revolve around health insurance, as if care and insurance are synonymous. Understanding the difference can lead to the delivery of better care for less money, and help break the health care reform logjam in Congress."
Read the full article at Xconomy.com
September 21, 2009
KIRO TV's "Better Northwest" features Qliance: How to Improve Sleep Hygiene
"Dr. Melissa Wolin with Qliance Medical Group talks about the causes of - and some remedies for - the growing problem of insomnia."
And for more information about how to catch quality zzz's, please visit our Resources page.
Watch Dr. Wolin's interview
"Dr. Melissa Wolin with Qliance Medical Group talks about the causes of - and some remedies for - the growing problem of insomnia."
And for more information about how to catch quality zzz's, please visit our Resources page.
Watch Dr. Wolin's interview
September 18, 2009
Story leads to Help for Couple bankrupted by Group Health Insurance
"Eugene and Yukiko Gatlin, former patients of Group Health who went bankrupt paying its insurance premiums, have found affordable health care. Actually, it's free. After reading our September 1 profile of the Gatlins, Norm Wu, CEO of the boutique primary care provider Qliance, contacted Seattle Weekly and offered to help."
Read the full article at the SeattleWeekly.com
Qliance Expands to Kent
"In an Atlantic Magazine article--'How American Health Care Killed My Father'--making the rounds right now, a local health care provider gets a mention for its innovative business model and it isn't Group Health."
Read the full blog at TheSunBreak.com
September 13, 2009
American Board of Family Medicine Elects New Officers and Board Members
"The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) is pleased to announce the election of 4 new officers and 3 new board members. The new officers elected at the ABFM’s spring board meeting in April are: Larry A. Green, MD of Denver, Colorado, elected as Chair; Craig W. Czarsty, MD of Oakville, Connecticut as Chair Elect; Alain J. Montegut, MD of Boston, Massachusetts as Treasurer; and John R. Bucholtz, DO of Columbus, Georgia as Member-at-Large, Executive Committee. In addition, the ABFM welcomes this year’s new members to the Board of Directors: Diane K. Beebe, MD of Jackson, Mississippi; Erika Bliss, MD of Seattle, Washington; and Howard Blanchette, MD of Valhalla, New York."
Read the full article
"The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) is pleased to announce the election of 4 new officers and 3 new board members. The new officers elected at the ABFM’s spring board meeting in April are: Larry A. Green, MD of Denver, Colorado, elected as Chair; Craig W. Czarsty, MD of Oakville, Connecticut as Chair Elect; Alain J. Montegut, MD of Boston, Massachusetts as Treasurer; and John R. Bucholtz, DO of Columbus, Georgia as Member-at-Large, Executive Committee. In addition, the ABFM welcomes this year’s new members to the Board of Directors: Diane K. Beebe, MD of Jackson, Mississippi; Erika Bliss, MD of Seattle, Washington; and Howard Blanchette, MD of Valhalla, New York."
Read the full article
September 6, 2009
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: Flat-rate Health Care a Viable Option?
"While Congress debates what to do about ballooning health care costs, a growing number of frustrated patients are opting for an alternative plan."
Watch the full story at NBC.com
September 5, 2009
Seattle Voices with Dr. Garrison Bliss
"Dr. Garrison Bliss is a board certified physician with 30 years of practice in primary care. He is a past president and chairman of the Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design and a leading voice for patient-financed medicine in the US."
Watch the full story at Seattlechannel.org
September 1, 2009
How American Health Care Killed My Father
"After the needless death of his father, the author, a business executive, began a personal exploration of a health-care industry that for years has delivered poor service and irregular quality at astonishingly high cost. It is a system, he argues, that is not worth preserving in anything like its current form. And the health-care reform now being contemplated will not fix it. Here’s a radical solution to an agonizing problem."
Read David Goldhill's full article in The Atlantic
August 21, 2009
Direct Primary Care - An Interview
"Direct primary care provide less costly retainer medicine. They charge around $50-$60 per month for primary care and full access. They do not accept any insurance; they do not bill any insurance; their members cannot bill insurance for repayment."
Read DB's blog
"Direct primary care provide less costly retainer medicine. They charge around $50-$60 per month for primary care and full access. They do not accept any insurance; they do not bill any insurance; their members cannot bill insurance for repayment."
Read DB's blog
August 19, 2009
Bankrate.com: 2 Prescriptions to Lower Medical Bills
"While Congress works to reform the health care system, millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans just need cheaper health care. Fortunately, affordable consumer options are expanding. For those who want to take health care matters into their own hands, consider these two unconventional alternatives to the standard employee-sponsored health insurance."
Read the full article at Bankrate.com
August 14, 2009
The Examiner asks: Is Direct Care an Affordable Health Care Option?
"There’s a quiet buzz stirring about direct care (aka flat-rate primary care, concierge care and direct primary care), a private member-based solution to primary health care. This isn’t a health spending account, an HMO, or a type of insurance. It’s more like a health club membership."
Read the full blog at The Examiner
The Puget Sound Business Journal reports: While Congress Deliberates, Venture Firms See Promise in "Direct Care" Model and Pump $4 Million Into Qliance Medical
"Some venture capitalists are betting that a way of delivering primary medical care detached from insurance will catch on widely, especially if consumers and employers believe it provides better and less expensive basic care."
Read the full article in the Puget Sound Business Journal
August 12, 2009
Qliance: Leave Insurance Out of it, New Health-Care Network in Kent Says
"Beginning this month, Kent-area residents will have a whole new way to get their health care, and though it's new, it has something of an old flair to it. "It's almost like the 'Marcus Welby, M.D.' days," said Norm Wu, president and chief executive officer of Qliance Medical Management, which is opening up a new facility in Kent Station."
Read the full article at the KentReporter.com
August 9, 2009
Cutting Out the Insurance Company
ABC's Good Morning America Weekend Edition explores medical practices that are cutting out the insurance middleman. They say that "flat rate health care is an insurance alternative as easy as a gym membership."
Watch the full story at GMAWeekend.com
August 7, 2009
Are Retainer Practices the Model for PCMH?
"If not, I wonder if they should be. Through the magic of Twitter, I learned yesterday (after the outage) of Qliance Primary Care. This company provides affordable (for many) primary care and eschews all insurance payments."
Read the Medrants blog
August 6, 2009
Seattle Practice Offers Low-Cost Care--But Doesn't Accept Insurance
"OLYMPIA, Aug. 1.—While Congress debates grand schemes to provide health insurance to everyone, a radically different kind of idea is emerging from this state.
This one has nothing to do with insurance.
Actually, that’s the idea.
Policymakers in the other Washington are missing an important point, says Dr. Garrison Bliss, one of the founders of Seattle’s Qliance Primary Care Specialists. Most medicine isn’t the sort of thing insurance should pay for."
Read the full article at yourhealthcaretoday.com
August 4, 2009
Health Care Reform: Seattle Doctors Have Different Answer Qliance Clinic Deals With Patients, Not Insurance Companies
"SEATTLE - As lawmakers in Washington D.C. continue to struggle over a new health care plan, a Seattle clinic says it has a much different solution to the problem. The clinic is called Qliance, and it doesn't accept payments from insurance companies. Qliance bills its customers directly, and doctors and patients say it saves thousands of dollars."
Read the full article and watch the news story at Q13 Fox
August 3, 2009
Dr. Frances Broyles named one of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine's Top Docs - Endocrinology for 2009
"THE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN: Nearly 1,200 physicians, nurses, and physician’s assistants in King, Kitsap, and Snohomish counties nominated colleagues they would choose to treat themselves and their loved ones. The 347 doctors who received the most votes have been listed here alphabetically and constitute 80 distinct specialties."
Read the complete list at SeattleMet.com
July 29, 2009
A Doctor's Oath: Community, Heal Thyself
"After 28 years in community medicine, Dr. Lester Pittle is changing direction. But not his belief in medicine for all. Come August 3, Pittle will begin working in Kent at Qliance, a medical practice focused on primary, preventive care that forgoes medical insurance."
Read the full article at RealChangeNews.org
July 13, 2009
Direct Medical Home Offers Health Care Without Insurers
"An insurance-free primary care "direct medical home" that requires patients to pay low monthly fees, but gives them 24/7 access and cheaper healthcare costs has the potential to save hundreds of billions of dollars if it's included in the national healthcare reform model, one advocate says."
Read the full article at healthleadersmedia.com
July 10, 2009
KING 5: Pay-Ahead Health Care Now Available in Seattle Area
"Could the answer to soaring medical costs be flat-fee, no-limit basic health care?
A group of Seattle doctors is banking on it and they're about to open a second clinic to prove it."
Watch the full story at King5.com
July 9, 2009
KOMO News 4: Seattle Health Clinic Takes Insurance Out of the Mix
"SEATTLE -- A new medical clinic has opened up in the city, and it may change the face of health care. A company called Qliance, like dozens of clinics around the country, is cutting insurance companies out of the mix. $1 out of every $3 patient spend on health care goes to insurance companies to cover paperwork processing costs. Stanley Stein says he used to pay $700 per hour for medical care. With Qliance, he pays roughly $67 a month."
Watch the full story at Komo4.com
July 8, 2009
America's Nightly Scoreboard with Dr. Garrison Bliss
"Qliance Medical Management, the Seattle-based company that doesn’t accept health insurance for primary care medical services, has raised $4 million in venture capital to expand its practice in Washington and to other states around the country."
Read the full article at Xconomy.com
"Dr. Jay Parkinson and Dr. Garrison Bliss on the idea of promoting the concierge care."
Our very own Dr. Garrison Bliss joins Fox BusinessLIVE to discuss Qliance and the benfits and implications of operating outside the insurance system.
Watch the full interview at: FoxBusiness.com/LIVE
Retainer Physicians Help Uninsured but Face Legal Obstacles
"This regulatory obstacle has emerged in other states where primary care physicians have charged monthly retainer fees. And when state legislators have sought to exempt these practices from insurance regulations, they've met resistance from the health insurance industry. However, retainer physicians have won legal standing in Washington state, where some employers are starting to provide their employees with paid membership in these practices with high-deductible health coverage for hospitalization and specialty care.
'It's an idea that can save the health care system,' said Seattle internist Garrison Bliss, MD, president of a 7-physician group called Qliance that has pioneered this practice model."
Read the full article at blogspot.com
June 9, 2009
Basic Health: What now?
"Washington State's Basic Health premiums are set to skyrocket in January. We'll hear the latest and find out what options are left for folks without insurance."
Dr. Garrisson Bliss joins The Conversation to offer Qliance as a solution for folks losing their Basic Health coverage.
Listen to The Conversation at KUOW.org
June 7, 2009
If All Doctors Had More Time to Listen
"Dr. Sacks said she worried that seeing so many patients would lead to errors. Last year, she moved to a clinic that focuses on longer patient appointments, 30 to 60 minutes. This translates to 10 to 12 patients a day.
Patients also communicate directly with her by phone or e-mail. During those longer appointments, Dr. Sacks can perform basic lab tests and simple procedures, so patients see fewer specialists.
'I probably head off a handful of emergency-room visits and hospital stays every month because patients can see me as soon as they have a problem, and I can be thorough rather than rushed,' she said."
Instead of waiting for health care reform, some doctors are cutting administrative costs, spending more time with patients and focusing on prevention. Qliance's own Dr. Lili Sacks is profiled in this New York Times article on physician innovation.
View the full New York Times article: If All Doctors Had More Time to Listen
June 4, 2009
Governor Christine Gregoire Signs House Bill SB 5436 Into Law; Qliance Welcomes Direct Employer Payment
Washington Policy Center Presents the 7th Annual Health Care Conference
Erika Bliss, M.D., FAAFP, Director of Medical Care, Qliance Medical Group, speaks about Qliance and the alternate primary care model at the 7th Annual Health Care Conference.
Watch Dr. Bliss' presentation
May 26, 2009
The Doctor is In and Insurance is Out
"No insurance. No limit on visits. Each appointment lasts a minimum of 30 minutes and has no maximum length. Drop-in anytime. All at an average cost of $56 a month. No screening process. “Our application process? You ask to be a patient? We say yes,” Bliss says with a chuckle."
View the full article in Just Cause: The Doctor is In and Insurance is Out
Health Care Reform and Congressman Dave Reichert
"President Obama has made reform the nation's health care a priority. On Tuesday, representatives from some of the nation's largest insurer's and health care providers pledged to cut costs. Will the Obama administration also push for a government–run health care service? How will it be paid for? What health care reform is actually politically feasible?"
Qliance's own Chapin Henry, Director of Business Development, joined the discussion to explain how a health care model like Qliance can provide patients with better heath care and help patients save money.
Listen to the Weekday Podcast at KUOW.org
May 12, 2009
Q-Mentors: Drs. Garrison Bliss & Erika Bliss:Continuing Education at Qliance
For the past year, Dr. Garrison Bliss and Dr. Erika Bliss have been hosting medical students as part of an alumnae program at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Meeting with medical students who are trying to figure out which residencies to seek, Erika and Garrison have been introducing students to the concept of Direct Practice Primary Care and the many potential benefits to both doctors and patients. The discussions typically take place on the weekends at Garrison’s home over brunch. For between two and four hours, UW medical students have an opportunity to chat with Garrison and Erika about real life issues for physicians in general and for practicing primary care physicians in particular - something not often addressed in the classroom.
Their goal is two-fold: to enhance classroom education about practical aspects of Primary Care in the U.S. and to entice more medical students into this much needed area of medicine. While Qliance hopes to draw as many of the best doctors as possible to its practice, Drs. Garrison and Erika Bliss hope to inspire students to explore primary care residencies (Family Practice, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics) and to remember that great medical care begins with a great relationship with one’s primary care doctor.
February 3, 2009
An HIT Moment with...Garrison Bliss
"An HIT Moment with ... is a quick interview with someone we find interesting. Garrison Bliss, MD, is president of the Qliance Medical Group of Washington, a medical practice that charges patients a monthly fee ranging from $49 to $129 for unrestricted access to its physicians and nurse practitioners."
View the full interview
February 2, 2009
New Visions for Fixing Health Care: Health Care for a Flat Monthly Fee
"To keep up in a world where $1 of every $3 spent on health care goes to insurance companies for claims processing, primary care physicians must keep rosters of thousands of patients and book dozens of appointments a day. The result, overworked doctors and inadequate care, is something that Qliance Medical Group, a 26-person Seattle startup, is trying to cure."
View the full CNN/Money.com article: New Visions for Fixing Health Care
January 21, 2009
Lessons from the Abyss: How to Get Health Care Out of Its Deep, Deep Hole
"As a primary-care internist in Seattle for almost 30 years, I've loved every day and most of the patients I've cared for. I have also watched medical care descend into a deep abyss—one in which quality, access, and cost have all been severely compromised. I think I may know the way back, and I want to share that with you."
Read the full The Stranger article: Lessons from the Abyss
Extremely Great and Incredibly Cheap
Qliance Ends the “Learned Helplessness” of the American Medical System
"In the fall of 2005, Erika Bliss, MD, was helping a friend install a hardwood floor and got a splinter—a big one, deep under her fingernail. "I can see why they use that as torture," said Dr. Bliss, sitting in an examining room last week. "It hurt so badly, I couldn't think straight." She couldn't remove the splinter, nor could her friend. It was Sunday and her doctor's office was closed. Dr. Bliss went to the emergency room."
View the full The Stranger article: Extremely Great and Incredibly Cheap
Doctor’s Orders
Expanding Medical Clinic Challenges Health-Insurance Moguls
"After 12 years at the helm of Long Live the Kings, a Seattle-based salmon-conservation nonprofit, Barbara Cairns encountered a problem. Providing health care for her dozen employees was "getting more and more expensive," she says. Insurance premiums, then about $600 a month per employee, were going up between 10 and 20 percent every year. Moreover, her staff was complaining of substandard health care: Doctor's visits were rushed, and employees faced a perplexing maze of specialists because their primary physicians were too busy to coordinate their health care."
View the full The Stranger article: Doctor’s Orders
January 18, 2009
Northwest primary care medicine: Curing what ails us
At the center of fixing the Northwest’s medical mess, primary care becomes the patient
"IN A REMODELED office in the Medical Dental Building in downtown Seattle, Qliance Medical Group is betting that its retainer-fee model is what saves primary care.
At $39 to $129 a month, depending on patient age and services, Qliance fees are a fraction of some high-end concierge practices — a term Qliance's leaders don't like. They believe their model will benefit not only individuals with spare cash but small businesses and low-income patients, and hope to expand to satellite clinics. By eliminating insurance, "we save over 40 cents of each dollar spent on primary care," CEO Norm Wu claims. They've also been able to invest in an electronic medical-records system and sophisticated lab equipment.
For the fee, patients get all the primary care the clinic offers, including X-rays and basic lab tests, and quick access, including e-mail, to doctors. The clinic is open weekends and evenings, and each doctor will carry 500 to 800 patients, compared to the typical 2,500 to 3,000."
View the full Seattle Times article: Northwest primary care medicine: Curing what ails us