The past few years have been a very interesting ride for health care and it has definitely kept our small office on our toes. We are very happy to announce that we have passed Meaningful Use and PQRS, these are the measurements that offices are now required to meet for the government. These measurements take stock of electronic medical records, patient care, effective visits and above all costs to the industry.

We do have to say that even after working very hard taking care of our patients, at times we are met with a certified letter, stating that our providers are taking too long seeing patients and because of this we are either cut out of the insurance or downgraded to one to two stars in their system. The star rating is very misleading to patients thinking the higher the star rating of the provider, the better the provider or office is. What the rating actually reflects is how much it costs the insurance company for patients to see that provider, not the experience or how well the patients are doing in their healthcare by seeing that provider.

We have been blessed to have wonderful, loyal patients who have been willing to switch insurances. Our office has been dropped and there have been times those insurance companies have ‘reconsidered’ their decision and we have been allowed back in their list of providers.

AIM has noticed in the past five years more and more private medical offices. Quietly selling their practices to large corporations and hospitals. At this time Advanced Integrative Medicine is in the very small minority of remaining an independent office. This allows us to treat our patients with the most current services, most advanced testing and the very best prescriptions for your individual needs. We only have to change to cheaper tests or prescriptions when the patient’s individual insurance refuses to pay, telling the patient that it is not needed or required. To save the company money. We have let the practice of medicine be in our providers very capable and well trained hands. We do honor the fact that some patients would prefer to go with the guidelines of their insurance company instead.

*Information has surfaced, in recent weeks that has stated the original reason for the implementation of ObamaCare, from the National Economic Council (who worked on the policy of ObamaCare), was to improve quality, expand coverage, and most of all bring down costs. They believed that “the consolidation of doctors into larger physician groups was inevitable and desirable,” and that “only the hospitals or health plans could afford to make the necessary investments” needed to provide the care we need at a lower cost.

In 2015, Harvard Medical School set out to verify if this philosophy was working after 5 years from implementation. What they actually found was; the savings and quality improvements were seen at the independent primary care offices and not at the large hospital run systems. They also found that when changes were needed in health to be made that the small run offices were better able to adapt and change their care and quality models compared to the large systems, saving time and money.*

*(The Wall Street Journal, Monday, August 1, 2016, “ I was wrong about ObamaCare” by Bob Kocher)

As a smaller office, Advanced Integrative Medicine, is dedicated to our patients and to the science of health care. We thank all our patients for trusting us with their health and their family’s health.