Every day I wake up to new messages about the economy, inflation and recession, and we are all careful to spend money wisely.  It can be very tempting to feel that spending money on healthcare is unnecessary if you are “healthy”. Why would you pay for something that you only use when you are sick, if you are rarely sick?

So, I’d like to take a moment to look at this differently, from the perspective of an “insider” who has been in the traditional fee-for-service sector for a long time.

Having a primary care doctor means you have someone in your corner who really knows YOU and your history, and that knowledge is priceless—it’s like having a money tree.  Because when you have a medical partner keeping you healthy, you feel better, you do more, you are rich with life, and you can avoid spending lots of money on unnecessary tests and studies.

A few weeks ago, I saw a longterm patient who was having trouble with frequent urinary tract infections. She had been referred to urology by another specialist, and that doctor wanted to do extra testing. We chatted a few minutes, and she also told me that she had been having more trouble with her mood, and she had been prescribed a certain type of medication to help (by another doctor).  I remembered that she had been on chemically similar medication about ten years ago, and it caused her to have urinary problems.

I prescribed a different agent for her mood and asked her to write me in a few weeks to let me know how she was feeling.

The urinary symptoms were gone, and she canceled the studies to evaluate for the recurrent infections.

And, her mood was also doing much better on the new agent as well.  She was thrilled to be feeling better.

Because I knew her history, we were able to avoid spending lots of time and money on testing, and she was able to feel better faster (and that may actually be the closest we can get to money growing on trees!). 

If you are ready to invest in your health, I would love to talk with you by phone to see if we could be a good fit, and get you scheduled for an initial consultation.   Just click the link below: