Washington Post Examines Increase in Physician Home Visits

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 19 Aug 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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The Washington Post on Wednesday examined the growing number of physicians who have given up their conventional practices to make house calls full time and profiled Virginia-based home care physician Robert Prasse. Smaller profit margins for conventional practices, a boost in Medicare reimbursement rates for home visits and overall "disgust with today's insurance-driven health care paradigm" have contributed to a rise in the number of physicians who make house calls, the Post reports. According to an analysis of Medicare data by the American Academy of Home Care Physicians, the number of house calls made by U.S. doctors and nurses increased from 1.5 million in 2000 to more than two million in 2004. However, some health care advocates are concerned that home-based physician care limits access for uninsured patients. Alwyn Cassil, a spokesperson for the Center for Studying Health System Change, said, "People with money can always get more stuff, so the worry about concierge medicine is that we already have a tiered medical system and this makes it worse" (Boorstein, Washington Post, 8/17).

Washington Post

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