Obama Care Affects Small Medical Practices: Grain Integrative Health Sets Primary Care Example

April 1, 2015 /MM-PressAdvantage/ —

March 30, 2015–Portland, OR–: With the changing atmosphere of healthcare with new Obama Care regulations, clinics and doctors are having to scramble to credential themselves as in-network providers with some insurers. Many small clinics struggle to complete this task on a timely, rolling, basis without the help of large hospital legal teams. It is a lengthy legal process of aggressive vetting by insurance companies to ensure they panel doctors who are appropriately trained and experienced.

Grain Integrative Health is a pillar of entrepreneurial leadership in the integrative healthcare primary care setting in Portland, OR. The woman-owned small business was founded before Obama Care by Dr. Lindsay Baum and Dr. Sara Kates-Chinoy in 2009 on the principle of creating safe, integrative, patient-centered primary care homes where doctors have extended healthcare visits with patients. The priority is the patient-doctor partnership and the prevention of disease. Their doctors all practice primary care medicine and accept most major medical insurances.

Dr. Lindsay Baum commented, “When January of this year began, many of the new Obama Care driven insurance plans began credentialing Naturopathic doctors. As an example, the MODA Health insurance panel had been closed to providers in our region of Portland for many years. We were fortunate to be invited to join the MODA Health insurance panel, which benefits our patients who switched to MODA Health insurance plans with the new regulations. We’d like to see broader inclusion of Naturopathic primary care doctors in licensed states. The most important thing is for states to elect to license our providers so that providers who are untrained can not claim to be doctors without penalty. As more states opt to license Naturopathic doctors, we will see a broader insurance network inclusion for our providers. This will reduce the financial burden of insurance credentialing for our clinic and other clinics like us.”

Dr. Sara Kates-Chinoy reminds us that “healthcare should be about the patient-provider relationship. Lindsay and I know what it’s like to have a health issue and not have your needs met by the medical system. Giving patients access to integrative primary care through their medical insurance is effective at cutting costs for both patients and insurers. Dr. Baum reiterates, “This year the doctors at Grain Integrative Health have helped hundreds of patients get off a medication or even poly pharmacy of medications- this is cost effective medicine.”

It will be interesting to see how pioneers in the integrative medical home sector will create opportunities for insurers to provide a more well-rounded offering of providers under the new Obama Care regulations. One thing is certain- the future of medicine depends on the insurance industry catching up to providers who offer an integrative approach to healthcare.

For those who interested can read more about the above providers and integrative medicine at www.grainintegrativehealth.com or about integrative medicine at www.naturopathic.org . To find out if your medical insurance covers a provider you can go to the insurers website or call a providers office.

Source: http://www.pressadvantage.com/story/706

Release ID: 78386