Maine Doctor Slashes Prices By Rejecting Health Insurance

I thought this was a very interesting article concerning the Health Care issue. You can find it here: gawker.com

Dr. Michael Ciampi announced on April 1st that he would no longer be accepting insurance in any form as payment for his services.

But this was no April Fool's joke: Dr. Ciampi says he decided to cut out the middleman and deal directly with his patients.

This resulted in much cheaper prices for his services. Here is Dr. Michael Ciampi's website with the list of his prices: Dr. Ciampi's prices

Then I tried to find out what the average price is for a doctor's visit without insurance. This is what I found: Typical doctor visit costs for uninsured patients


What I like about it too is that he negotiates with patients with financial difficulties:

"I’m freed up to do what I think is right for the patients," said Ciampi, who is now able to make house calls and even negotiate discounts for patients with financial hardships.

This really hits home for me since I only live about 30 minutes north of Portland where he practices. I wanted to post this for the ATS community to see what you all think about this doctor's idea of Health Care reform.

There is another doctor doing this also and its a bit of a scam.

They obviously are not treating serious illness's and anything that will cost you an arm and a leg you will still have to pay for.

Basically you still need your health insurance in case of more serious injury or health problems but now you also have to pay this doctor on the side. You actually end up paying more by going this route.

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

Originally posted by Cherry0
I thought this was a very interesting article concerning the Health Care issue. You can find it here: gawker.com

Dr. Michael Ciampi announced on April 1st that he would no longer be accepting insurance in any form as payment for his services.

But this was no April Fool's joke: Dr. Ciampi says he decided to cut out the middleman and deal directly with his patients.

This resulted in much cheaper prices for his services. Here is Dr. Michael Ciampi's website with the list of his prices: Dr. Ciampi's prices

Then I tried to find out what the average price is for a doctor's visit without insurance. This is what I found: Typical doctor visit costs for uninsured patients


What I like about it too is that he negotiates with patients with financial difficulties:

"I’m freed up to do what I think is right for the patients," said Ciampi, who is now able to make house calls and even negotiate discounts for patients with financial hardships.

This really hits home for me since I only live about 30 minutes north of Portland where he practices. I wanted to post this for the ATS community to see what you all think about this doctor's idea of Health Care reform.

This sounds like this man takes his role of a healer in our society seriously. He should be applauded, and his story should be spread around.

We need more doctors to do this. Kick the middle man out. The insurance industry is killing our country.

Originally posted by Hopechest
There is another doctor doing this also and its a bit of a scam.

They obviously are not treating serious illness's and anything that will cost you an arm and a leg you will still have to pay for.

Basically you still need your health insurance in case of more serious injury or health problems but now you also have to pay this doctor on the side. You actually end up paying more by going this route.

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

If you have serious issues, most doctors will have to refer you to a specialist.

I'm not sure where the scam lies.

edit: ah, I see where you're coming from, considering co pays and what not.

Originally posted by supremecommander

Originally posted by Hopechest
There is another doctor doing this also and its a bit of a scam.

They obviously are not treating serious illness's and anything that will cost you an arm and a leg you will still have to pay for.

Basically you still need your health insurance in case of more serious injury or health problems but now you also have to pay this doctor on the side. You actually end up paying more by going this route.

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

If you have serious issues, most doctors will have to refer you to a specialist.

I'm not sure where the scam lies.

Not a scam per se...perhaps that was the wrong term. The doctor's intentions may be great but the point I was making is that you still need to carry insurance so if your doing that then why also negotiate a separate deal with a doctor if you already are covered.

Your paying twice for the same thing. Maybe if he sees you right away it might be worth it but my waits are never long where I go so I don't think this is for everyone.

Originally posted by Hopechest
There is another doctor doing this also and its a bit of a scam.

They obviously are not treating serious illness's and anything that will cost you an arm and a leg you will still have to pay for.

Basically you still need your health insurance in case of more serious injury or health problems but now you also have to pay this doctor on the side. You actually end up paying more by going this route.

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

Thanks for the response Hopechest.

I wasn't aware that another doctor somewhere was doing the same thing. Pretty interesting. Do you know where by chance?
Also, I was under the impression that family practice doctor's would usually refer patients with serious injury's or illnesses to specialists. At least that's what happened to my brother and I.


EDIT: Ooops. Looks like you two already brought that up in the posts above! Lol.

From your link...

Ciampi told the Bangor Daily News that the new policy has allowed him to reduce his overhead and pass the savings on to the consumer.

Overhead... as in buried in paperwork. My moms doctor "office" has several full time employees that sit at desks all day filling out insurance forms.

Originally posted by intrptr
From your link...

Ciampi told the Bangor Daily News that the new policy has allowed him to reduce his overhead and pass the savings on to the consumer.

Overhead... as in buried in paperwork. My moms doctor "office" has several full time employees that sit at desks all day filling out insurance forms.

Wow! Yeah, I have 0 experience or knowledge with doctor's offices and what goes on behind the scenes. So thanks for that post intrptr. I can imagine that they would have so much paperwork to go though. Pretty crazy that they need several full time employees for it. I was always under the impression the doc's usually do it or some of it. Boy was I wrong. Yikes.

Looks he can expect a knock in the night from a friendly, helpful IRS agent...

Would anyone be surprised?

Originally posted by Hopechest
There is another doctor doing this also and its a bit of a scam.

They obviously are not treating serious illness's and anything that will cost you an arm and a leg you will still have to pay for.

Basically you still need your health insurance in case of more serious injury or health problems but now you also have to pay this doctor on the side. You actually end up paying more by going this route.

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

I believe this is the thread you are referring to. I posted my comments on what I think of this type of healthcare in that thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Cherry0


Imagine another doctor doing this, then another, and another. . .

Now imagine a small hospital doing this. . . . then another, and another. . .

There are already small co-ops all around the country where nurses and doctors are treating individuals "under the table" as it were.

I would like to thank Obama for introducing a system so vile and wasteful that it has encouraged the medical community to take these steps.

Originally posted by Vasa Croe

Originally posted by Hopechest
There is another doctor doing this also and its a bit of a scam.

They obviously are not treating serious illness's and anything that will cost you an arm and a leg you will still have to pay for.

Basically you still need your health insurance in case of more serious injury or health problems but now you also have to pay this doctor on the side. You actually end up paying more by going this route.

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

I believe this is the thread you are referring to. I posted my comments on what I think of this type of healthcare in that thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks for the reply and link Vasa Croe. I read a bit of it but I will try and read it in more detail at some point when I have time. I'm all over the house doing cleaning and watching the baby and popping on here for a spell here and there.

But from what I gather of the doctor in the thread you linked, he charges a monthly fee. I'm not sure how much he charges per month as I haven't checked on the details quite yet but it doesn't sound as appealing to me. However, this Maine doc, Dr. Ciampi, as far as I have read, does not charge a monthly fee, but instead a smaller fee for each service he provides. So it's a bit different in that respect.

Originally posted by supremecommander
This sounds like this man takes his role of a healer in our society seriously. He should be applauded, and his story should be spread around.
We need more doctors to do this. Kick the middle man out. The insurance industry is killing our country.

Right because Doctors that make money don't take their role of a healer seriously?

reply to post by Hopechest

Unless he makes housecalls I don't see why anyone would bother.

House Call $200.00
(for patients who are homebound or too sick to come to office. extra charge could apply if longer travel required)

That and all his prices for services are listed if you had taken the time to look before calling him a "scam". And if you call a Doctor listing his prices up front BEFORE you are seen, I would love to see what you call the insurance companies who don't tell you what anything will cost up front other than the co-pay.

reply to post by Cherry0
We have a few doctors in our town that only accept self-pay patients. Should the need arise for tests or to see a specialists these doctors hook you up with labs and specialists that cut deep discounts for self-pay patients. There are even surgeons in our area that do the same (we just paid $1200 a few months ago to our daughter's surgeon who removed her gall bladder which is far cheaper than someone with insurance would pay).

Sometimes physicians have to wait many months for reimbursement from insurance (up to 6 to 8 months or better for Medicaid and Medicare), pharmacists as well. There are pharmacies that refuse Medicaid and Medicare in my town because it takes so long to be reimbursed and in a lot of cases what they are paid is less than their cost for the medicine- especially with corporate run pharmacies offering $4 prescriptions because they can afford to take the loss as they make it up in other sales. Doctors and pharmacists are quite happy to receive full payment at the time of service when compared to waiting for several months or taking a loss.

The real difference here is that he does not process insurance payments. If you have insurance you will have to file the claims yourself. So yes you can still use your insurance.

He is doing this because by being a preferred provider, you are required to charge outlandish prices for your services to the uninsured otherwise your agreement will be canceled and the state authorities will start crawling up business.

Working a string of part-time jobs, I was without health insurance in Tennessee for 14 years, and I can see the point about health insurance bankrupting us financially. I had sort of an emergency in 2004 and had to have my wisdom teeth cut out - for two months prior I'd been having extreme pain, 2 tylenol every 3 hours even through the night, and I still was half crazy from the pain.

My mother wanted to help, so she put it on her credit card and let me pay her back later. Price quoted to me, with no insurance, for first appointment and basic exam - $33. Overheard conversation a few minutes later with the "new girl" on phones asking what they charged for a first appointment and basic exam.

This guy on the phone was asked if he had insurance, he said yes. Price quoted to him - $99. It was automatically tripled if you had insurance, which is why insurance is so high, doctor visits are so high, and medical treatment is so high. At the moment I am working full-time and I have health and dental insurance. Problem is, I can't afford a $70 co-pay to get a new prescription for a maintenance heart medication, and I've been without it 6 months. I go to a walk-in clinic instead of a regular doctor, because I recently moved and haven't got setup yet with a regular doc.

Financially my future looks brighter in a few months, but dang I'm tired of my heart skipping so much (meds are for arrhythmia). I'd love to have it now, but I'll have to wait at least another month before I can go. Danged if you do, and danged if you don't.

This might could be a good thing if it's a trend. You don't have to drop your insurance, just don't use it at these doctors' offices. Or file it yourself if you want, like one poster commented above. I'm sure most businesses' Human Resources offices could help.