November 16th, 2009

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Emergency room physician Andrew Aronson can easily picture this scenario:

An elderly patient shows up at her family doctor, complaining of vomiting and diarrhea. It is clear that fluid loss has left her dangerously dehydrated.

One response? Send her to the hospital for fluids administered intravenously.

That’s when Aronson might have met her, or someone like her – when she was costing her insurer as much as several thousand dollars for fairly simple, low-tech treatment, particularly if she wound up staying overnight.

Aronson still moonlights in the ER, but these days, as vice president of physician practices for Bravo Health Inc., he is helping the Baltimore-based insurer organize a clinic on Lehigh Avenue that he hopes will provide a less-expensive alternative for that woman, and thousands of elderly, and often poor, patients in North Philadelphia.

What makes the clinic unusual is that it is entirely funded and administered by an insurance company. Instead of working for medical practices or hospitals, every doctor, nurse, technician, and clerk at the two-story clinic will be a Bravo employee. And the patients won’t be able to just walk in off the street. Every one of them will have to have Bravo insurance.

Read more at the Inquirer.