I have heard of the group visit phenomenon before, but I really never bought into it.
A recent article in the Boston Globe extols its virtues by describing how doctors can see a bunch of patients at the same time all the while billing each one individually. It seems to me that privacy would really have to be guarded closely and could lead to messy situations. I can see a whole lot of awkward scenarios where a patient may bring up a topic that I wouldn't even want to discuss behind closed doors. The article also hints that this may be the answer to the physician shortage issue but I really question that. Does anyone really think insurers will continue to pay full price for these group visits once it starts getting popular? As soon as they get a whiff that doctors are actually capitalizing on this trend they will pull the plug. They will create some modifier to divide the cost of the visit by the number of patients in the group. This soon will be called the "circle jerk" modifier. You heard it here first.
I have heard of the group visit phenomenon before, but I really never bought into it. A recent article in the Boston Globe extols its virtues by describing how doctors can see a bunch of patients at the same time all the while billing each one individually. It seems to me that privacy would really have to be guarded closely and could lead to messy situations. I can see a whole lot of awkward scenarios where a patient may bring up a topic that I wouldn't even want to discuss behind closed doors. The article also hints that this may be the answer to the physician shortage issue but I really question that. Does anyone really think insurers will continue to pay full price for these group visits once it starts getting popular? As soon as they get a whiff that doctors are actually capitalizing on this trend they will pull the plug. They will create some modifier to divide the cost of the visit by the number of patients in the group. This soon will be called the "circle jerk" modifier. You heard it here first. 
