SLO County News BlogGolf, Wine, Real Estate, Business & Travel NewsNew Model for SLO Health CareSunday, October 24, 2004Gautam Bhakta, his nurse and a bag of exam equipment will come to you. Gautam Bhakta's open-access, prepaid care could provide an attractive option for patients seeking more personal attention and fewer HMO hassles. It comes at a cost - a $1500/yr retainer fee - but provides unfettered access to the doctor, who remains on call for a small, select set of patients. Dr. Bhakta can now spend up to 45 minutes with 7-8 patients per day, instead of the HMO model of 10 minutes with up to 20-30 patients per day. Some may critisize this new model as only serving the rich, however, Bhakta is serving at least one retired patient living on a fixed income in a mobile home park who finds this model worth the cost. With a broken health care system, having other options is certainly attractive and something I'll look into further - especially when I go to pay my next $10k/yr insurance premium payment.A creative model for health care - Tribune Read More
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