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By: Stephen Fogg

1. Cost to You

Patients are likely to pay more for routine health care if their doctor is employed by a hospital. Hospitals increasingly redirect services away from a physician’s office towards higher cost facilities such as Regional Medical Centers.

2. Quality Time with Your Doctor

Typically, Independent Doctors don’t have daily patient quotas to meet. In turn, spending more time with each patient and understanding their needs. This enhances the quality of care which could lessen misdiagnoses and potentially decrease cost. 

3. Independent Practices Provide Personalized Care

When physicians spend more time with patients they better understand their needs. This in turn provides personalized care based on need rather than using an “if this, than that” Healthcare IT formula to diagnoses or treat patients.[1] 

4. Insurers Pay Hospitals More Than Independent Practices.

Often 3 or 4 times more for the same services, these costs are passed onto insurance companies that then pass them onto the consumer often resulting in higher insurance premiums.

5. Independent Physicians Are Competitive

By not associating with a Hospital System, Independent Physicians must align themselves with competitive practices to create an urgency in providing quality service to patients.

6. They’re Affiliated

Independent Physicians are often clinically integrated with a larger Hospital System offering hospital admission as needed. By working with an Independent Physician, you decrease the rates of preventable admissions to a hospital thus lowering costs.  

7. Doctors Don’t Believe in The Hospital System.

According to a Charlotte Observer report. “75 percent of North Carolina doctors said they disagree “somewhat” or “mostly” with the premise that hospital employment of physicians is a “positive trend likely to enhance quality of care and decrease costs.””[2]

8. Dedicated Members of The Community

While hospitals pay executives millions of dollars to battle bottom line budgets. Independent Doctors are often stalwart members of their community sponsoring local events and helping where they can.

9. It’s Their Business

It’s important that Independent Physicians treat patients with the care they deserve, otherwise they will go elsewhere.

[1] (Lawrence P. Casalino, 2009)

[2] (Ames Alexander, 2015)

Request An AppointmentNew patient appointments require a physician to send a referral request on your behalf. The referring physician can be a specialist you saw who identified an oncology-related condition or your primary care physician
  • New patient: you have a medical condition that is or could be cancerous or a blood disorder
  • Transfer care: you are moving into the area and need an oncologist/hematologist, or you are currently under the care of a local oncologist/hematologist and would like to transfer care to one of our physicians
  • 2nd Opinion: you have been diagnosed with cancer or a blood disorder and would like to get a second opinion on the prognosis and treatment course
  • Former patient: if you have not been to the office in 3 years or more, you will need to get a referral sent in by a physician to re-establish care

Send the referral form to your physician to refer and ask them to send with the following items:

HAVE THE PHYSICIAN FAX THE REFERRAL FORM ALONG WITH THE DOCUMENTATION LISTED ABOVE TO

*****  FAX # 704-377-0353 *****