This doctor tried to change how American health care is delivered. Then the pandemic hit.
Wong is the only employee in a single-room office. He greets patients as they arrive. He answers the phones. And he charges a flat fee of $30 for an office visit.
Long before the coronavirus pandemic began to test the limits of American health care, many patients and practitioners already were deeply frustrated with a system burdened by rising costs, a lack of price transparency and insurers' often Kafka-esque demands
After finishing his residency in 2014, Dr. Timothy Wong soon realized that his work at a regional hospital in Pennsylvania wasn't what he had expected.
“I went into medicine to help people," he said, "not to be an administrator."
He's not alone in his disillusionment. A 2016 study found that for every hour doctors treated patients, they spent two hours on record keeping and other administrative work
Wong also was frustrated because insurance companies' restrictions often made it difficult for him to give his patients the care they needed.
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So, in the fall of 2019, Wong left the hospital to open a “micro-practice” in Pittsburgh. His initial goals were to improve price transparency and efficiency in the health care system, at least on a small scale.
Wong is the only employee in a single-room office. He greets patients as they arrive. He answers the phones. And he charges a flat fee of $30 for an office visit.
“If a patient walks into my clinic, I tell them the prices," Wong said. "There are no co-pays, no deductibles, no co-insurance. It’s just like a normal experience of walking into a grocery store, seeing the price of something before buying it, and then making the purchase."
The small practice grew steadily in the first few months, reaching up to 32 patients a day. Then the pandemic hit.
Patients avoid non-emergency care
And, amid the worst health care crisis in America in generations, Wong's medical practice dried up.
After Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf issued a "shelter-in-place" order March 23, Wong's operation shrank by 80 percent. Many people, including patients in need of preventative care and other non-emergency treatment, simply aren't leaving their homes.
Across the country, thousands of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals have suffered layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts as non-emergency surgeries and other treatments are postponed until after the pandemic has passed. At Cookeville Regional Medical Center in Tennessee, for example, administrators on April 6 announced plans to furlough 400 hospital employees because fewer patients are seeking treatment.
Practice moves to tele-medicine
To adapt to the suddenly upended health care market, Wong now offers free primary care consultations by phone. He also created a tele-medicine option, a distance-friendly means of receiving care that has become an important part of the fight against the coronavirus.
Wong has developed an app, called iHealth Teleclinic — available on the Android app store and pending approval from Apple — that provides on-demand telemedicine via a text-based chat or video-conference, to Pennsylvania residents.
Wong’s practice model, which eschews insurance companies, is well-suited to the new approach.
“I have doctors reaching out to me about this model. It’s really exciting,” Wong said. “It gives me hope that there is a small chance we could actually change our health care system for the better."
Alexandra Hudson is an Indianapolis-based writer, a 2019 Novak Fellow and a Young Voices contributor. Follow her on Twitter: @LexiOHudson.