Isn't this retainer-style practice just another name for 'concierge' or 'boutique' medicine, suitable only for the rich, limiting care to the few who can afford it and leaving out the rest?
	We call it “Direct Care.” (I refer you to the website: simpd.org – “Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design”). Doctors who choose to practice “Direct Care”, (contracting directly with their patients and eliminating the middle man), are now entering into a direct financial and medical relationship with their patients in order to give the very highest quality and best value in health care. Primary Care Doctors in this model are now able actually to MANAGE CARE, and patients are free to choose and look for the best value. We live in the Information Age and, unlike the old days of medicine, good information about quality and cost of medical care is now readily accessible to all. If more and more people entered into Direct Care, managed not by bureaucrats but by patients and their primary doctors, it will ultimately cost less for all of us. The savings will be realized in reduced hospitalizations, fewer trips to the ER, and better coordination of specialty services under expert and caring management. Combine this with informed shopping for the best value in prescriptions, diagnostic testing, lab service, and more, and immense savings will be realized. Finally, many doctors who practice “Direct Care” actually have more time to provide services to the uninsured at reduced or no cost, thus increasing availability of medical care to the public. If TrustCare is successful, I hope also to be able to build TrustCare Direct, a discounted, direct, “payment-at-time-of-service” primary care clinic. This will provide affordable quality primary healthcare to the both to the insured and uninsured, opening up care to hundreds of patients who choose not to pre-pay, but to pay for services when rendered.