Minor point about 'automated billing/accounting.' I work in medical research. I write up and authorize orders for a broad range of research sponsored medical testing. In theory, our system is set up in such a way that when I write the order, it sends the bill to my research account, and the patient never even knows that there was a charge. In practice, about half the time, my patients get a bill and are very vocal about it (Thankfully). This isn't to shut down the point entirely, just to illustrate that automation when taken as a class, still has a lot of bugs to be worked out, and until such a time that happens, it actually takes more work than if the robo-biller hadn't been involved at all.
Totally agree there. Honestly the whole thing confuses the hell out of me that healthcare is so expensive and so inefficient. Why hasn't someone come out with a better business model yet? I've heard of these little medical co-ops and that interests me. You just pay a subscription fee to a doctor and then you have no other co-pays etc. But they're rare.
Healthcare is expensive and inefficient because the seller and the buyer must pass their interactions through a for-profit third party that has no responsibility to either the buyer or the seller. It's the same reason a divorce can be had for $400 in filing fees but a contentious divorce can be millions. Three sides to every story Concierge medicine is basically cutting the insurance company out of the equation. Unfortunately it rarely covers catastrophic events, trauma, any of that stuff you tend to have insurance for. We knew a few doctors in LA that offered concierge service, and we've looked long and hard at it ourselves. Why? Because you get to charge a monthly that you pretty much never have to provide any services for and the people who buy it are rich as fuck. Somebody who says "I'm going to pay $50 extra a month so that if I need to go to urgent care it's free" is a hypochondriac, not a genius. Make the umbrella big enough to cover the catastrophic stuff and suddenly you're Aetna. Ain't no concierge service gonna do shit for you if you develop cancer or lupus or MS.