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We invite you to participate in an exciting new statewide initiative created by Vermont physicians – Healthfirst, Inc.
Healthfirst was started in the fall of 2010 as a non-profit organization by several Vermont physicians who felt that it was becoming increasingly more difficult to practice medicine in the current healthcare environment.
All health care providers face similar obstacles: the cost of delivering high quality individualized care to our patients continues to increase steadily but reimbursement for these services has stagnated or declined. As a result, many independent offices have been forced to close or have been taken over by larger organizations. In addition, healthcare politics (healthcare reform, rules and regulations) threaten the independence of private health care providers by favoring the big players in the health care market, large hospitals, health insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies. In contrast, private healthcare providers currently do not have a voice that is heard by those in charge of health care reform.
Given our limited time, and the many other constraints most of us deal with on a daily basis, these issues are difficult if not impossible to manage individually. Healthfirst is not striving to develop a large group practice, rather, we are creating a state wide support network of independent practices so we can continue to care for our patients in our existing form and in the current healthcare climate. Specifically, members of Healthfirst benefit from:
- Taking advantage of potential volume based discounts such as: group rates for malpractice and health insurance premiums for physicians and their staff, banking and asset management fees; discounts for cell phone service, office supplies and furniture, laboratory and radiology materials.
- Having access to local experts with know-how in strategic planning, healthcare reform (clinical and payment), anti-trust, law and contracting (non-risk/risk and shared savings).
- Gaining a voice in the political process of meaningful healthcare reform.
We expect that these benefits will have a significant effect on lowering overhead cost for individual practices thereby ensuring that we can continue to deliver the best possible individualized care for our patients.
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