MY FEES

     It is an expensive proposition to operate a medical practice.    I have two employees who do an excellent job and deserve to be paid accordingly.   The rent keeps going up (it increased $6,000 just in 2001 alone because of the booming Austin economy).    The cost of malpractice insurance and every other product and service we use moves inexorably higher.    Under managed care I have not been able to pass any of those rising costs through to my "customers" as any other business would have done; so all those overhead increases have come straight out of my own pocket for the past 8 years!    Just imagine what that adds up to in lost take home pay.   

     But as my patient, those are not your issues.

     The only issues that should really matter to any consumer of any type of service (including medical care) are:

1. Do I need the service?
2. What quality of service do I want?
3. What's it going to cost?
4. Are the costs appropriate for the services provided?
5. Can I afford the cost?

     For 30 years I have always charged fair fees; so I'm not at all hesitant to tell you in advance what you'll be charged.    Below are a few representative fees.    You will note that it costs you less to receive your medical care from me than it costs to take your pet to the veterinarian (and you won't receive partial insurance reimbursement on that vet bill).    Surely your own health care is worth at least as much to you as the health care of your pet.

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When you see this symbol anywhere in this web site, it denotes something that a managed care doctor simply cannot afford the time to do for you because of the low fees he's being paid for your care.

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     In my practice I don't do any of the very expensive specialty tests or procedures that can send patients into "sticker shock."    The most expensive visit you'll ever have in this office is your annual physical exam.   The central goal of my medical practice has always been preventive medicine; so I encourage my patients to have a thorough exam every year or two in order to detect minor problems before they become major ones.   As you can see above, I have kept the cost of even that lengthy and detailed exam easily affordable.   

     The managed care plans pay absurdly low fees for routine physical exams which means that cash-strapped doctors feel enormous pressure not to perform thorough "routine" exams on their "well" patients.    Managed care doctors know that they can generate perhaps twice as much revenue per hour by rushing 10 patients through for brief office visits than they can from devoting that full hour to one patient doing a comprehensive health assessment.   

     If you have found it difficult to schedule a thorough physical exam with your managed care doctor, you now know why.    Perhaps your current doctor has never even suggested such an exam or has told you that "you don't need one" when you asked about scheduling a physical.    Even if you've insisted on a physical exam from your managed care doctor, you may have felt that what you got was a rushed, cursory, "once-over" (maybe even by a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant instead of the doctor himself).

     You know from experience how complete my annual exam is.    What you're buying for yourself in this office is thoroughness and ample "face time" with your doctor - that's been my style for 30 years; I refuse to change; and that's why I decided in 2001 to get out from under the boot of the managed care companies.   

     You can bet your life (literally) that any doctor constrained by the plummeting managed care fees cannot possibly afford to invest the amount of time and energy I do in keeping you healthy.    No matter how good a doctor may be, no matter how badly he'd love to be able to spend more time with each patient, he knows he must rush far more patients through his office every hour than he should... or go broke... PERIOD!

     My fees are fair and affordable.    They are even more affordable when you consider that you may be getting back as much as 70-80% through your out-of-network benefits.

     We'll be glad to accept your VISA or Mastercard; and, of course, we'll give you all the (completed) paperwork you'll need to apply for reimbursement using your out-of-network benefits.   It can't get much simpler than that.

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