In Minnesota, a joint venture between two family practice groups is reclaiming for family doctors the power to decide which specialists and hospitals to send their patients to. Our strategy is to relate to them, as well as to indemnity carriers, as insurance entities. All members are family physicians, with 15 small practices in St. Paul and its immediate suburbs.
Many members boast long experience with managed care.
Under the thumb of large HMOs when it comes to referral options, family physicians have found themselves hobbled, with patient dissatisfaction on the rise. Our physicians would have to tell patients, 'I don't know where to send you. We ended up over the last five years with some significant disruptions of services. Only after long discussion did these skeptics finally began to realize how crucial the family physician-patient relationship was, and that ours was a better strategy. Family physician Mark Wiest, who serves as MinnHealth's medical director and as co-medical director, along with Tim Hernandez, M.D., of Family HealthServices, recalls unexpected guidance.