Focus on Preventative Measures: Primary Care
On behalf of Humana, gold sponsor of the Vitality Revolution Podcast Series, Lori Hutson joins Suzanne. Lori is owner of LJ Hutson Insurance LLC in Washington state. Regarding physical wellness, this segment focuses on the evolution of primary care. The overall landscape has changed with the advancement of tele-heath, being able to do visits from home.
Lori says, “If there’s a silver lining in our industry with COVID, it forced people to use technology. Because when you’re working with older folks, we’re resistant to change, and I don’t want to have to learn something new. And then, with the COVID restrictions, we had to. Tele-health has really added a new element to it. So you can be sitting in the comfort of your own home, set up the appointment, and have your primary care visit that way. I remember maybe 10 years ago being down with bronchitis, and I knew it was bronchitis. I had it once before. I called my doctor and they said no, we can’t prescribe anything, because we have to see you. Well, my husband was working full time. I didn’t want him to take time off. I couldn’t drive, I was too sick. So by the time I felt well enough to stand up, I thought, well, I’m on the way to get better anyway. And so I think that, for some of those types of things, tele-health has really helped.
“I want to talk a little bit about our future. There are less and less primary care doctors available. What’s happening is in the medical schools, the students now, for the most part, they’re going for specialties, they want to be a cardiologist or an anesthesiologist. Primary care is suffering right now. And so I just think in another 10 years, what the heck is gonna happen, because there’s not many students coming out, the older doctors are retiring. The insurance companies are really recognizing that. There’s gotta be some innovative ways to help resolve some of these issues. One of the things that people are doing is this concierge doctor system, where you pay a monthly fee to have a primary care doctor on call. That could be $2- to $10,000 a year. If people can afford that, then they’ve got their doctor on call at any time.
Suzanne mentions now that One Medical has been purchased by Amazon, you can sign up through Amazon. Lori adds, “And the thing about One Medical is that is a national program. And so they have their One Medical, and then they have their One Medical Seniors. If you’re looking at Amazon, and you see the One Medical, that has a monthly fee, but the One Medical Seniors does not have a monthly fee. That’s embedded into your health care. That’s one of the ways that some of the insurance companies are are trying to come up with some ways to help people. It’s kind of a hybrid between having that concierge doctor on call all the time, and then having your normal primary care physician that you go in and you sit in the waiting room.”
Contact Lori through her website LJ Hutson Insurance LLC.
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Originally published June 05, 2023
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