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Adel Eldin, MD
After practicing medicine in Florida for nearly 20 years, Adel Eldin, MD, FACC, FACP, fought for and celebrated the signing by then-Governor Rick Scott of the Direct Primary Care (DPC) Bill last March to address the frustration that he and other physicians face in today's healthcare climate.
Eldin is known across the country for his patient advocacy efforts for senior rights, education and community outreach. He has been published in several journals and has been a part of multiple clinical and research trials involving treatment of acute myocardial infarction and coronary stent research. He is the proud recipient of many prestigious awards involving the best small business of the year, First Humanitarian Award and special recognition from President Obama for serving the community.
But in addition to his status as a board-certified cardiologist, he is a vibrant physician entrepreneur tackling the issues surrounding the realities patients and the provider community face from insurance companies and regulations.
He speaks locally and internationally with passionate fervor to "bringing the heart back to medicine."
With that sentiment in mind, in 2010 he created ProntoCare, a full direct-patient-contracting healthcare ecosystem as an answer to the transition pains facing healthcare.
"At the time, as you know, there was acquisition mania. A lot of doctors just sold their practices to hospital systems, mostly for pennies, and then became employed physicians. Unfortunately, afterwards you have a huge problem across the country in the form of physician burnout because they lost their autonomy," said Eldin.
He pointed out that shortly thereafter, he was seeing a massive exodus as the corporate world began to shed physicians.
"Everything's automated right now. They can bring the cheap labor, like a nurse practitioner because it's all about bottom line," he said.
He pointed out that reimbursements were becoming a problem for physicians and patients weren't faring much better.
"On the other side, the patient is getting literally robbed. They were promised things that never happened. If they needed medicine, it's denied and delayed. Initially, you had to fight it through a doctor then it went down to a nurse. Then it went to a technician. Now you don't even talk to human beings...it's all automated," he said.
"I built a system where's there's no middle-man. A patient direct program contracting for healthcare with no insurance. Insurance is nothing but a sham, for the most part. You don't get the benefits that you were promised. The providers don't get paid. People butt heads. Too many people were going out of business. The patient's paying everything out of pocket.
Orlando Medical News talked with Dr. Eldin to check in how the program was growing.
OMN: What were the motivating issues to create ProntoCare.
There are over 60 million Americans who have no health coverage or insufficient coverage, and this number is on the rise due to the fact that individuals, and small and medium-size businesses are unable to afford health coverage for their employees and thus are losing their good workers. They become unable to attract new employees because of health coverage issues. Ever-rising premiums, deductibles and copayments are being dumped on consumers. Then there's the denial of benefits to patients and denial/delay for providers to the point that have forced so many small medical practices to shut down. All this has stressed out consumers making unpaid medical bills the number one cause of bankruptcy.
Similarly staggering statistics for consumers are well documented as follows:
- Over 35 million American adults will be contacted by collection agencys for unpaid
medical bills (American College of Cardiology, 2019)
- 15 million adults will use up all savings to pay medical bills (American College of
Cardiology, 2019)
- 10 million insured American will be unable to pay bills (Masterson, 2019)
- 25 million Americans will not be able to pay for their medications (American College of Cardiology, 2019)
- Half of Americans with insurance are unable to pay medical bills (Masterson, 2019)
Patients are hurting and doctors are hurting because they are not getting paid, thus ending up with an alarming 70 percent physician burnout rate in America!
So, we wanted to bring back a direct relationship, thus direct contracting with ProntoCare as an alternative free healthcare market, pro-consumer, and pro-doctor choice method to end the middle man and improve healthcare delivery, cut cost, hassle, and help the entire community.
OMN: How does it work?
ProntoCare is a unique healthcare ecosystem, that serves patients, saves them money and helps physicians thrive economically at a time where there is so much denial of payments or at best delayed or reduced payments.
Once enrolled in ProntoCare, acccording to your age group, you read the contract and if you like it, then you go to Paypal and make your payment for a small fraction of commercial insurance.
Once enrolled, then appropriate referrals are made to subspecialists who are members of the network and can serve patients for a discounted cash price. Average savings range between $7k-10k per person per year. We also give 5 percent back to the community for food banks to fight hunger as a part of social responsibility because we have 55 million hungry Americans mostly women, children, elderly and veterans.
So, ProntoCare promotes wellness, fights disease, hunger and brings the heart back in medicine.
OMN: What are the benefits to physicians/groups under the program?
As affiliates, their cash flow will improve so that they can continue to have thriving practices. They will eliminate the ridiculous paperwork, dealing with denial of payments, overhead costs and will be able to focus more on patient care. This will improve their professional and patient satisfaction helping to get rid of physician burnout that is becoming a public health hazard.
OMN: What kind of savings can patients see under ProntoCare?
Multiple significant savings as follows:
- Annual savings averaging $7000-$10,000 per person per year. (As an example of a couple enrolled over three years have saved $45,000.00 compared with traditional insurance they had before.
- Thousands of dollars additional savings by avoiding costly emergency room visits and hospitalization.
- Discounted medications, labs, and savings on annual supply of natural supplement to stabilize the immune system for ages 40-65 years and 65-100 years of age as a part of the covered benefits.
It is an incredible deal, unmatched anywhere, not just in Florida.
OMN: What other patient services do you offer as a physician entrepreneur?
I have built a global Hub for Medical Tourism Services, (www.floridamedicaltourism.com) for patients if they need:
- Any surgery or procedure or a specific therapy globally,
- Patients looking for honest second opinions,
- Wellness Tourism both inbound and outbound,
- Rehabilitative Tourism, a unique program for those looking for non-pharmacologic treatment of pain combining centuries-old effective safe natural therapies, avoiding the opioid crisis that claimed 72,000 American lives in 2017.
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/non-pharmacologic-treatment-pain-adel-eldin-md-facc-facp/)
I believe we have a complete ecosystem for all healthcare and wellness needs for the consumer and offer a dignified model for the practice of medicine for providers. I always believe in the power of reaching out to the community and educating people about new choices in healthcare that are truly affordable, high quality and delivered through direct contracting by ethical, caring providers giving excellent customer service and transparent pricing.
For more information, visit
http://www.prontocare.co/our-story/
