There is a big disparity in how people with insurance receive their care verses uninsured. While the medical care for the insured population is mostly managed and coordinated by the Primary Care Physician (PCP), uninsured patients are likely to visit any facility that they have access to in case of a health emergency. There is no mechanism to maintain or share medical records, track health history, or provide follow-up care to uninsured patient population.
While evaluating patient care services at an outpatient medical facility to improve patient outcomes, we also noticed that uninsured patients would come for a sick visit consultation but would ignore follow up visits or blood tests due to out of pocket costs. This makes it hard for the doctors to accurately diagnose the problem and provide appropriate treatment. We have also noticed international visitors facing similar problems, including patients finding it difficult to pay full price for multiple doctor visits, lab tests, and prescriptions. In addition, we have noticed that different pharmacies change different amount for the same prescription, even some charging double the price, resulting in higher out of pocket costs for all patients, including insured and uninsured patient population.