Indeed, a 2012 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that public health centers equaled or exceeded the standard of care offered by private practices.
Health center patients pay on a sliding income scale. At the HealthWorks for Northern Virginia facility in Leesburg, for example, people with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($47,100 for a family of four in 2013; roughly half of that for an individual) average $20 to $30 for a doctor visit. Medicare beneficiaries have no copay for annual wellness visits and many preventive services. Older patients can also get low-cost prescriptions.
2. See a nurse-practitioner
At Life Long Care of New London, N.H., Sean Lyon, RN, gives physicals, stitches wounds, prescribes drugs and manages chronic illnesses. Along with the country's other 155,000 nurse-practitioners (NPs), Lyon does nearly everything a primary care doctor does.
Registered nurses with "advanced practice" degrees play a growing role in primary care. Some states don't allow NPs to prescribe drugs, so many practice in partnership with a physician.
Research shows that nurse-practitioners decrease cost per patient visit by as much as a third, because NPs ? who are paid less than physicians ? tend to order fewer tests and cut down on return visits by coordinating care better. Patients give them high marks for spending time with them, according to a 2011 report in Medscape.
The four-NP staff of nurse-managed FamilyCare of Kent, Wash., sees only 16 to 20 patients a day. "Our patient visits last from 15 to 45 minutes," says Bob Smithing, NP, FamilyCare's clinical director. "People are choosing nurse-practitioners because they care about having a consistent provider who gets to know them."
Source: http://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-04-2013/medical-care-you-can-afford.html
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