Yen, Small: Let’s Protect Oklahoma Patients’ Rights
Ervin Yen, Jonathan Small: Let’s protect Oklahoma patients’ rights
BY JONATHAN SMALL AND, STATE SEN. ERVIN YEN
Many policy issues will be considered by the Legislature during the 2015 session. No doubt health care will be a topic of discussion. As health care costs continue to grow and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) changes how people get medical care, everyone’s looking for policy reforms and innovations that can make acquiring high-quality health care a reality for more people.
While opinions on health care and the ACA differ, common-sense solutions should be supported. Health care policy reforms must be pursued. Many patients, doctors, employers and providers feel overwhelmed by the current system. Doctors and patients often express that they feel as if they’re just a number and not a name. They feel that in the typical health care model, costs continue to rise with no end in sight. They often feel that the health care system inappropriately at times involves a bureaucracy or a middleman that makes getting services needlessly complex and expensive.
Oklahoma is getting national attention for the growth of direct care arrangements. Direct care arrangements between doctors, patients and employers work similarly to many services consumers buy. In a direct care arrangement, the doctor provides a prospective patient with a set fee for monthly services or a one-time fee for a specific procedure. Doctors across the nation now offer family and primary care services for less than the cost of a phone bill per month and provide excellent care.
For one-time surgical procedures, direct care arrangements make the experience for the patient, doctor (and often the paying employer) more efficient, at a lower cost with higher quality.