Name: 【TED】P.J. Parmar: How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) (How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) | P.J. Parmar)
Uploaded: 2019-02-27T16:55:32.000Z
Duration: 10 min 22 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Translator: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

Basic passive voice

was once called the longest, wickedest street in America.

My office is there in the same place -- it's a medical desert.

There are government clinics and hospitals nearby,

but they're not enough to handle the poor who live in the area.

By poor, I mean those who are on Medicaid.

Not just for the homeless; 20 percent of this country is on Medicaid.

If your neighbors have a family of four and make less than $33,000 a year,

But they can't find a doctor to see them.

found that only 20 percent of the family doctors in Denver

And of those 20 percent, some have caps, like five Medicaid patients a month.

Others make Medicaid patients wait months to be seen,

but will see you today, if you have Blue Cross.

This form of classist discrimination is legal

Almost half the family doctors in the country

Well, because Medicaid pays less than private insurance

and because Medicaid patients are seen as more challenging.

Some show up late for appointments, some don't speak English

and some have trouble following instructions.

I thought about this while in medical school.

If I could design a practice that caters to low-income folks

then I would have guaranteed customers and very little competition.

So after residency, I opened up shop, doing underserved medicine.

Not as a nonprofit, but as a private practice.

A small business seeing only resettled refugees.

and since then, we've served 50,000 refugee medical visits.

Ninety percent of our patients have Medicaid,

Most doctors say you can't make money on Medicaid,

Well, if this were real capitalism, then I wouldn't tell you,

But I call this "bleeding-heart" capitalism.

And we need more people doing this, not less, so here's how.

We break down the walls of our medical maze

by taking the challenges of Medicaid patients,

turning them into opportunities, and pocketing the difference.

The nuts and bolts may seem simple, but they add up.

Of course, that's how it works at the emergency room,

But not usually at family doctor's offices.

Because Nasra can't call for an appointment.

She has a phone, but she doesn't have phone minutes.

She can't speak English, and she can't navigate a phone tree.

And she can't show up on time for an appointment

because she doesn't have a car, she takes the bus,

and she takes care of three kids plus her disabled father.

but usually waits less than 15 minutes to be seen.

She then spends as much time with us as she needs.

Sometimes that's 40 minutes, usually it's less than five.

And I love it, because I don't pay staff to do scheduling,

and we have a zero no-show rate and a zero late-show rate.

Our exam rooms open right to the waiting room,

our medical providers room their own patients,

and our providers stay in one room instead of alternating between rooms.

Cutting steps cuts costs and increases customer satisfaction.

We also hand out free medicines, right from our exam room:

over-the-counter ones and some prescription ones, too.

we put a bottle of children's Tylenol or amoxicillin right in her hand.

She can take that baby straight back home instead of stopping at the pharmacy.

I don't know about you, but I get sick just looking at all those choices.

With customer satisfaction so high, we've never had to advertise,

And we've become real good at working with Medicaid,

since it's pretty much the only insurance company we deal with.

Other doctor's offices chase 10 insurance companies

【TED】P.J. Parmar: How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) (How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) | P.J. Parmar)

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【TED】P.J. Parmar: How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) (How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) | P.J. Parmar)

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