Health Advocate Physicians ™
help patients
make healthy choices

Health Advocate Physicians™ is a special new program that has been created to help physicians help their patients deal with their #1 concern - the cost of healthcare.

In a recent 2006 survey of Americans conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, healthcare ranked as the #1 concern of those surveyed ahead of the war and terrorism.

Six out of 10 rated the American health system as "fair" or "poor" and more than half are not satisfied with the cost of healthcare. However, the system got high marks for quality.

So the obvious issue for most Americans is healthcare costs as those costs contiue to be shifted more to individuals in a new movement call Consumer Directed Health Care (CDHC).

The theory is to educate the consumer regarding the cost, quality, and outcomes of care and let them decide what is the most cost-effective way to provide for their wellness and for their medical care.

Health Advocate Physicians™ are committed to helping their patients in this process first by focusing on ways to achieve and maintain a state of wellness and healthy lifestyles by participating in the Vitality21™ nutritional assessment and supplementation programs.

Despite a great healthcare system that tends to treat pain and symptoms, degenerative illnesses are still on the rise. Since numerous studies have shown that daily nutrition, exercise and lifestyle choices are often at the root of these conditions, our Health Advocate Physicians™ are committed to reducing these disease problems and allowing their paitent to enjoy a healthy life at much lower costs.

Related to managing the costs of wellness and sick care, the CDHC movement started several years ago with the introduction of Health Savings Accounts (HSA) which are special accounts where money can be put aside pre-tax and used to pay for qualifying medical expenses.

The problem in the past with HSA's was the "use it, or loose it" provision where the consumer needed to accurately determine in advance how much to set aside each year, and if they quessed wrong they would loose what wasn't legitimately spent.

Recent changes in federal law provide for the linking of HSA's and high deductible health insurance plans (HDHP) to essentially create a health spending account where you don't "loose it" if you don't spend it - but in fact, you can continue to accumulate the funds you don't spend and have those funds become part of your savings or retirement plan.

The theory is that if consumers can keep the funds they don't spend, then they will be more likely to pick cost effective providers and be more likely not to "run to the doctor" or worse, the emergency room for every little cough or sniffle.

As one can imagine, while this theory sounds nice, the complexity of the healthcare system and the associated regulations can quite frankly be overwhelming even for the most astute of consumers.

In order to help current patients and perhaps attract some of the 47 million Americans who don't presently have insurance, but who might participate in one or more of these new DCHC programs, Health Advocate Physicians™ has been created to help physicians help their patients make wise decisions regarding staying well, getting appropriate and cost effective care, and keeping more of their money for the future.

A broad range of educational and practical consumer tools to help in making some of these difficult decisions are being created to including "Second Opinions", "Healthy Strategies" and "Best Care" referal recommendations.