[FairWitness]

- - - say you go to a dermatologist to have a mole checked out. What if several moles were scheduled together? You'd get to learn a lot about what requires a visit and what doesn't.

Logical, but - - . Everybody here who has a mole somewhere they would not care to "bare" in a group of strangers, raise your hand.

[FairWitness]

- - - the most obvious way to improve doctor efficiency is to do less doctoring, which results in more medical problems and, thus, less long-term efficiency.

This article caught my eye since I have been spending a lot of time in doctor's offices lately - both for myself and with my son who is going through a laborious process of proving, via a series of doctor's visits, that his carpal tunnel syndrome is work related. I don't actually think that the "group visit" idea would help that much, except for the "educational" part which could be done in groups.

[Restorer]

The major difference in medical offices in the last half-century is the camp of forms-processers behind the receptionist.

He blows right by this as unimportant, but over half the time of medical office staff is spent processing forms or talking to HMOs on the phone. Some offices now give a 50%+ discount to those who pay cash.

This undoubtedly increases medicals costs by 1/3 (?).

[Taliesan]

The reason the delivery of office visits hasn't changed since the 1950's is because the supply is constrained by huge barriers to entry, the demand keeps increasing, and the legal exposure and regulatory burden on the transaction keeps increasing.

There is simply no incentive to do it "better".

Group visits have a very limited usefulness.

There are fads in every discipline. The writer is probably not in healthcare. Other businesses' fads always look more viable than your own.

[truthkeeper]

bttt

[Z.Hobbs]

Some of these group sessions would be a great idea, but neww HIPAA regulations protecting patient privacy will eliminate any discussion of anyones existing condition in a group setting. Hence all you can have are infomercials that do not involve actual patient care or the identification of audience members as needing a specific type of care.

[utahagen]

Group medical visits? Give me a break. I'd happily pay three times as much to spend a chunk of time one-on-one with my doctor.

[Blue Screen of Death]

...Annals of Internal Medicine.

I don't spell well enough to try that line.

[Born Conservative]

You'd get to see others being examined, get to learn about which ones needed to come to the ER and which didn't, and get some general health education.

I guess this guy never heard of HIPAA. I can see it now: "OK everyone, since there are 10 of you at the same appointment, you'll each need to sign this form allowing us to discuss your protected health information in front of the others".

And while we criticize HMO's for their cost cutting and lack of services to patients, the HMO I belong to and work for has nurse specialists who meet with patients in high risk groups (diabetics, asthmatics, etc.) to monitor their health conditions on a regular basis and act as a laison with the physician. It's a highly effective program that's good for both the patient, who gets personalized attention as well as close surveillance of their condition, and for the HMO, which is able to curb it's costs as related to uncontrolled disease conditions (keeping a patient's disease under control is much more cost effective in the long run).

[VOA]

bump

[humblegunner]

A lot of people take someone along when they go to the doctor's office alone

The logic of this statement eludes me.

[ambrose]

bump