Local doctor's solution to healthcare crisis SOUTH PORTLAND (WGME) -- One of the big hot button issues across the nation is the state of health care and its affordability.
Dr. Michael Ciampi, a family practitioner in South Portland, believes he has found the answer to our healthcare crisis.
Ciampi has chosen to stop accepting health insurance at his practice.
“Instead of working for the government or working for insurance companies, we’re gonna work for the patient,” says Ciampi, who has been working at his Lincoln Street practice for 10 years.
“The amount of regulations that are coming out, pages and pages of regulations are coming out pages and pages every week are coming out, and we wouldn’t be able to hire enough people in order to comply with all of them,” says Ciampi.
At his practice, patients are paying out of pocket for services, all of which are listed on his
website.
“Normally under the old system we would have to charge 150 dollars for a visit, under this system we've cut that in half, we're literally changing 75 dollars for a visit ,” says Ciampi.
With this system, it brings with it lower overhead costs. Dr. Ciampi says he’s passing his savings to his patients.
Mike Leary has been a patient of his for ten years. “I get such great healthcare here, like second to none,” says Leary.
The change is helping hundreds of people like Leary, who has a high deductible. It also helps those who are self-employed or don’t have insurance.
“You know I’m a working class guy I don’t earn a huge amount of money and I don’t feel any reservation paying his prices at all,” says Leary.
Dr. Ciampi says he is spending more time with his patients and less in front of a computer.
“You see all your patients? If someone comes in for a visit, they’re stuck with me. We don’t have a nurse practitioner we don’t have a PA. I can write my own rules to some extent,” says Ciampi.
The Maine Board of Medicine says right now there is no law that requires a private practice to accept health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. And that it is something that is happening nationwide.