Dear Valued Patient,
It is with great excitement that I inform you that on October 1, 2015 I will be offering a new and innovative way of accessing your medical care called YourChoice Direct Care. It is our version of a new model of care that is growing by leaps and bounds in the United States called Direct Primary Care (DPC). In DPC practices, we are able to provide improved access and quality, usually at lower overall costs for the patient. We do this by not accepting governmental or insurance company payments within our practice. To do this, I will be leaving the Premier Internal Medicine practice but remaining in the same location. The answer is by dramatically reducing our overhead costs by avoiding the complexity and immense expense associated with billing and coding for the third party payer system (insurance companies and the government). We also avoid the conflicts of interest the insurance companies are injecting into the system that pit the physician’s interest against those of their patients. Thus, we restore the patient to their rightful spot as the center of that which we do. By reducing our costs, we are also able to successfully practice with a smaller, more historically appropriate, patient census. This will allow us to provide you with outstanding care and improved access. By limiting my practice to 1,000 patients versus the 3,500 patients to whom I currently provide care, I can give you the focused, unhurried care that you deserve. How can we do this and reduce costs? In 3 ways
1. Insurance: As 75-80% of medical care is provided by primary care physicians, many patients will find that our services are so complete that they will no longer require as expensive an insurance policy as they previously may have had. Though insurance is still needed, by changing to a less expensive insurance policy they may save many times the total cost of our services.
2. YourChoice Direct Care: Our practice. We will be including the near entirety of that which we do as a low cost monthly membership. This will include all visits, in-house diagnostic testing including EKGs, Spirometry, Holter monitoring and office based procedures such as cryotherapy and joint injections. There are no hidden fees or co-payments. The membership is your care. We cut the costs and wrap it all in a bow just for you.
3. Wholesale Pricing: We have negotiated wholesale prices for those who do not want to use their insurance for such things as labs, imaging and some medications. We have also negotiated discounts for things such as colonoscopies and specialist evaluations. With high deductibles becoming common, we have sought ways to make medical care affordable. What if I already have good coverage and don’t want to change it? You don’t have to. You can still use your insurance for everything except us. It just may not be cheaper in that scenario. Nonetheless, I firmly believe that the improved care that we will be able to provide you will more than justify any minimal, additional expense. What is the rate for a YourChoice Direct Care membership? Age 18-39: $49.99/month
Age 40-59: $59.99/month
Age 60-69: $69.99/month
Age 70+: $79.99/month
2 months free for those that elect to pay annually
10% off for spouses. What happens to the patients that do not enroll? I am heart broken by the loss of any of the patients that I have come to know and love over the years. It has truly been my great honor to have provided for their care. In an attempt to ensure that this change only offers new options to patients, I am happy to announce that my existing partner Dr. Elena Gupta will be remaining in the insurance based practice of Premier Internal Medicine. She will be able to accept some of those patients. John Providence is also actively pursuing an additional physician to join her on the insurance based side of the practice. This new physician should be able to accept the patients that choose not to join me in YourChoice, and thus minimize any disruption to their care. Shared practice? Yes, we will be remaining in my current office space at 1021 Karl Greimel Drive, Suite 99 in Brighton. We will have two separate practices in that shared office space. On one side, YourChoice Direct Care and on the other Premier Internal Medicine in the traditional Insurance based role. We have truly sought to give people options. After all, it’s YourChoice. To help people understand more about YourChoice Direct Care, we will be hosting a series of seminars in August and September to provide information about YourChoice Direct Care and the insurance options that synergize well with it. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to (810) 224-5300 to reserve your spot in one of the seminars. Location: Remax Building Auditorium (basement), 6870 Grand River Avenue, Brighton. Saturday, August 15th noon-2pm
Wednesday, August 26th 6pm to 8pm
Tuesday, September 8th 7pm to 9pm
I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to read this letter. I know that new ideas can be intimidating but can assure you that I’ve done the math and I know that this is going to be a vastly superior model of care for many of our patients. I also firmly believe that as people begin to realize the benefits of this model of care, it will become the dominant form of medical care delivery in the United States. I am thrilled to be amongst the first physicians to offer this new, higher level of care to Livingston County and look forward to providing you with excellent care for years to come. Wishing you good health,
Chad Savage, M.D.
