by Rose Broyles

If you have a hard time bringing your parents to the doctor, you live far, or no viable transportation is available then a physician making a house call might be the key to convenience and safety.

Services Provided

Services will depend on the provider, but normally your visiting doctor can confer with your primary doctor to go over your medical history, physical exams and treatment. Together, they can plan yours or your loved one’s treatment. Other services include:

• Medical Refills
• Xray, CT, EKG, and possibly other types of scans. *a licensed Radiographer will accompany the visiting MD to perform these services.
• Physical Therapy and Rehab
• General Wellness Check
• Blood draws and Urinalysis
• Coordination with other health services: pharmacy delivery, medical supply delivery, etc.

Why Home Care?

There was a time when doctors routinely made house calls. You’ve seen the movies! But as healthcare costs grew and more services were needed, the home became replaced by emergency rooms and doctor’s offices.  Access is a major concern for many home-bound seniors. If seniors do not get the care they need, then what happens? Their health fails and medical costs skyrocket.

These patients are “high cost” users with five or more chronic conditions. Studies show that 10% of all Medicare beneficiaries consume 60% of Medicare expenditures (“Chronic Conditions: Making the Case for Ongoing Care,” p. 19, Partnership for Solutions, Johns Hopkins University, for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (December, 2002); CBO report (May, 2005).

Wealth doesn’t matter , because primary care access increases medical costs. Instead of receiving appropriate, timely primary care for acute declines or new problems, they opt for expensive ER’s and inpatient units. Over 50% of Medicare beneficiaries admitted to a hospital are readmitted within 60 days, so oftentimes a patient’s first hospital visit is not their last.

A house call program with 91 clients in a Nevada Social HMO produced 62% reduction in hospital stays. You can read more about these studies at Home Care Physicians.com

How to Pay

Healthcare is the hot topic in the news lately. Hopefully President Obama’s health reform will include much needed services such as these. In fact, I think if home services are encouraged by more health professionals then we can save our country millions in healthcare costs based on these studies.

Most typically, home care physicians will charge:

• self-pay
• certain HMOs
• PPOs
• Medicare (Part B)

You’ll have to contact the home care physician company to determine what they accept  as payment.

Find a Home Care Physician

Home physicians can be found in almost every state. You can go to the American Academy of Home Physicians to find a visiting MD near you.