Hidden Pearl in the PPACA?

From - Flat-Fee Health Care Option Provides Patients and Small Businesses Lower-Cost Alternative to Traditional Insurance Plans


...A relatively little-known provision in H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by the President today, creates an affordable new choice for individuals and businesses by allowing flat-fee direct primary care practices, commonly referred to as "medical homes," to compete within the state-based insurance exchanges where many Americans and small businesses will be able to shop for health coverage beginning in 2014...

..."Whether or not you support the health reform bill in its entirety, I think we can all agree that allowing affordable, innovative solutions to compete with traditional insurance-based plans to bring down the high cost of health care is a good thing," said Garrison Bliss, MD, co-founder of the Direct Primary Care Coalition, who is also co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Qliance Medical Management Inc., which operates three clinics in Washington State. "Health insurance adds tremendous value for expensive, unpredictable medical needs that fall outside the scope of primary care, and this new law will mean insurance companies can now create lower cost 'wrap-around' policies to cover what direct primary care does not."...

..."The direct primary care provision is the only part of the health reform bill that is going to reverse the high cost of today's health care," said Dr. John Muney, founder of AMG Medical Group, which operates five direct primary care clinics serving all five boroughs of New York. "We applaud the work of Congress and those members who support this provision and fought to make sure Americans were provided a new choice for accessing health care."...

...Direct primary care medical homes can typically service approximately 90 percent of the medical issues most people need to see a doctor for. By removing time-consuming and costly insurance reimbursement processes from routine and inherently low-cost services and procedures, direct primary care practices eliminate approximately 40 cents of every dollar currently wasted in traditional insurance models...