Click2MD

From the gas pump to the grocery store, many Americans are getting financially squeezed. Record inflation also meaningfully impacts seniors, who often rely on fixed monthly income from programs like Social Security.

https://www.click2md.healthcare/blog/its-getting-expensive-to-be-an-american-senior

It's Expensive To Be An American Senior — Click2MD From the gas pump to the grocery store, many Americans are getting squeezed financially. Those price increases also meaningfully impact seniors, typically defined as those 65 years old and above.

👋 We've recently moved our office from the Eastern Hills Mall (we had a great experience) to 8433 Main St in Williamsville. Our new office is a more traditional medical space (for in-person 🤝 appointments), We also still offer telemedicine 📱 appointments too. We are accepting new patients ✅ and encourage you to visit us at click2mdny.com to understand what we offer (& book an appointment). Also feel free to call us at 716-528-0000. Thank you! Dr. Majeed

Newsweek's latest cover story "Toxic Food” is very informative and well-written. There is an ongoing debate about the relationship between food and its effects on health. The mainstream debate revolves around how many calories a person eats and its impact on weight.

All foods are converted to glucose before being converted to energy (through complex metabolic processes). Consuming excess calories means you are eating more calories than your body can burn off. Most unwanted calories come from ultra-processed foods. Excess calories are stored as fat (glycogen), for future consumption. Part of this storage process involves circulating insulin levels. This is known as the glycemic index (GI) of food. A high GI correlates to higher chances of fat formation.

Ultra-processed foods have a high glycemic index, are calorie dense, easy to consume in larger quantities, readily available, and can become addictive. Some examples include soft drinks, packaged bread, chips, breakfast cereals, instant or frozen foods, and cookies. Although ultra-processed foods are often advertised as healthy and natural, the labels usually tell incomplete stories and disclose only what is required by law.

Download Click2MD's Healthy Weight NY brochure for free, (https://www.click2md.healthcare/weight-loss) to learn more about how we propose to help people manage their weight.

https://www.newsweek.com/2021/12/17/americans-are-addicted-ultra-processed-foods-its-killing-us-1656977.html

Americans are addicted to 'ultra-processed' foods, and it's killing us Explosive growth in "ultra-processed" foods that bear little resemblance to anything natural is behind a panoply of diseases. Policymakers are taking notice

Click2MD updated their business hours.

In our latest post, Dr. Majeed writes about Hypertension. Its causes, complications and management/prevention tips.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is one of the most common chronic diseases. It affects all ages and anyone.

*108 million people (45% of the population) in the US have hypertension (BP > 130/85).

*Only 25% of those with hypertension have it under control.

*New York State ranks 43rd in the nation (29% of New Yorkers have hypertension)

*Hypertension was the primary or contributing cause of death for approximately 500,000 people in United States in 2018.

*Hypertension has cost Americans $131 billion annually!

https://www.click2md.healthcare/blog/hypertension-causes-complications-amp-how-to-manage-it

Hypertension: Causes, Complications & Management — Click2MD Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is one of the most common chronic diseases. It affects all ages and anyone. We briefly overview its causes, complications and how to prevent and treat hypertension.

Receiving a surprise medical bill is unfortunately something many Americans have experienced. The surprise bill story of Kyunghee Lee, who’s spent decades running a family dry cleaning store outside of Cleveland, is upsetting. The out-of-pocket cost for Ms. Lee’s pain-relieving injections for her arthritis increased by over ten times this year!

In our latest blog post we briefly overview what happened and how you can avoid being surprised by medical bills.

https://www.click2md.healthcare/blog/her-doctors-office-moved-one-floor-up-her-bill-was-10-times-higher

Paying 10x For The Same Procedure. What Happened? — Click2MD The story of Kyunghee Lee, who’s spent decades running a family dry cleaning store outside of Cleveland, is upsetting. The out-of-pocket cost for Ms. Lee’s pain-relieving injections for her arthritis increased by over ten times this year! Why?

New research concluded that there were negative effects of isolation and lockdown on eating behavior in the Italian population. The study connects increased levels of stress and social isolation with anxiety and emotional overeating. In our opinion, other ill effects would also likely include increased snacking, eating when not hungry, increased carbohydrate consumption, and consuming sugary drinks.

It’s important to be careful of eating due to stress and anxiety, especially in these difficult times. We have a few suggestions to help you manage your anxiety.

https://click2md.substack.com/p/compulsive-eating-during-covid-19

Compulsive Eating During COVID-19 New research paper links increased binge eating to lockdowns related to COVID

According to Harvard's Nutrition Source, in 1990, obese adults made up less than 15% of the US population. By 2010, 36 states had obesity rates of 25% or higher, and 12 of those had obesity rates of 30% or higher. Today, nationwide, roughly two out of three U.S. adults are overweight or obese (69%) and one out of three is obese (36%).

We've launched Healthy Weight NY, a physician-managed weight loss program, to help you beat obesity. Download our brochure today for more information or make an appointment online.

Healthy Weight NY — Click2MD Click2MD offers a customized weight loss program directed by a physician. We evaluate multiple medical and non-medical factors to develop a plan and work with the foods that you like. We will stay with you until your goals are achieved.

We believe the future of aging is at home. 39% of all current COVID deaths in the US have occurred at long-term care facilities. There will be an increased demand for services that help people "age in place". Not only is this a preference for most, but if successfully managed leads to significant cost savings. Under the current home care model, physicians are usually involved remotely and rarely make house calls. We think this needs to change.

A common way people end up in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, relates to hospitalizations. Many of these hospitalizations may be unnecessary and can be managed at home successfully. In fact, according to Premier, 30% of all ER visits could be avoided and managed in an outpatient setting. We believe that outpatient setting could be your home.

Click2MD home care members get personalized medical care at home, physician availability on short notice, and unlimited telemedicine. Our goals are to decrease unnecessary hospitalizations and ER visits in order to keep our members out of long-term care facilities. This improves our members' quality of life and saves them money by avoiding large out-of-pocket expenses.

https://www.click2md.healthcare/physician-home-care

Doctor House Calls & Home Care — Click2MD Click2MD home care members get personalized medical care at home, physician availability on short notice, and unlimited telemedicine. Our goals are to decrease unnecessary hospitalizations and ER visits in order to keep our members out of long-term care facilities. This improves our members' quality

Click2MD now takes appointments on their Page.

With the Medicare Open Enrollment period ending December 7th we thought it would be helpful to do a brief comparison between Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Every day over 10,000 people in the US turn 65 and most have to choose between a Medicare or Medicare Advantage plan.

We believe both plans have their positives and negatives. However, using the term Advantage can be misleading in certain ways. For example, in Original Medicare (A, B, D) an individual has the independence of going to any physician or hospital across the US which many find valuable, especially related to seeking expert advice from leading medical institutions (i.e. getting advice from Sloan Kettering or Dana Farber regarding cancer treatment).

If you have questions please feel free to reach out at (716) 528 0000 or [email protected].

Link to Blog Post: https://www.click2md.healthcare/blog/medicare-vs-medicare-advantage

With ‘Open Enrollment’ in full swing, many Western New Yorkers and WNY businesses are assessing their healthcare options for next year. It can be overwhelming assessing the over 350 plans available for individuals, couples, single parents and families. We wanted to simplify things and help Western New Yorkers understand their health insurance options for 2021. We also outline why we believe Click2MD’s value proposition is more relevant than ever.

Click the link to download our 2021 WNY Open Enrollment Report for free: https://www.click2md.healthcare/2021wnyopenenrollmentreport

Click2MD Our goal is to keep our medical home care members out of long-term care facilities so they may age at home. This improves quality of life, while also resulting in significant cost savings.

Navigating the NY State of Health Marketplace can be daunting. Just in Erie County there over 100 plans to choose from whether you are an individual, couple, single parent or family. It also highlights Click2MD's unique value proposition.

For example, family health plan premiums, in Erie County, range from $1,000 to $2,400 per month and have various deductible and out-of-pocket thresholds. In the above example, the deductible for the $1,000 per month policy is $8,550 per person, while there is none for the $2,400 per month policy. In other words, under the cheaper policy your family could face $8,550 of out-of-pocket expense per person (or $17,100 per group).

However, another way to look at it is if you set aside the premium savings (i.e. $2,400 - $1,000) by opting for the cheaper policy, a family could save $16,800 a year and use the savings to reserve for out of pocket expenses, should they arise. Interesting way to look at it right?

We believe businesses, families and individuals can utilize our direct primary care (DPC) membership ($75 per person or $125 per family) to not only supplement an insurance plan, but to stay healthy and lower the probability of hospitalizations. For example, if you know your family has unlimited access to quality primary care, you may be more willing to engage a lower cost plan.
Interested in learning more?

Visit us at click2mdny.com or call us at (716) 528 0000.
https://www.click2md.healthcare/

Click2MD Physician home care services for those who have difficulty travelling. Monthly membership includes ongoing care and monitoring. Primary objectives are to help our members age at home, by reducing ER visits and hospitalizations.

As one of the only direct primary care (DPC) practices in Western New York, attracting individuals and families to our practice is often a two step process. The first step is usually educational around why our practice doesn't accept insurance. The second, is convincing and showing people that we deliver high quality care because we have more time to spend with our patients.

The traditional healthcare business model is known as "fee-for service". As you may have guessed, what that means is the more patients a physician, NP or PA sees the more they bill. Therefore, healthcare service providers often push their employees to see as many patients a day as possible (sometimes 4 to 5 patients per hour!). Medical billing then becomes a separate exercise where you have teams dedicated to maximizing reimbursement. In fact, 8.3% of all healthcare spend in the US relates to administration vs. 2.7% in Canada! This needs to change.

At Click2MD, we charge a monthly subscription fee and have a limited practice size. Whether you see us multiple times or once, you are only paying the subscription fee. Given no insurance is involved, there is no billing, including surprise billing, and the vast majority of our time is spent with our members. This is the beauty of the DPC model, the patient and provider relationship is restored. The financial incentives are not based on volume, but quality.

We are currently accepting new members to our practice and are offering a discounted membership rate and one month free trial for a limited time. For more information on our practice and the offer please call us at (716) 528 0000 or email us at [email protected].

https://www.click2md.healthcare/

Click2MD Physician home care services for those who have difficulty travelling. Monthly membership includes ongoing care and monitoring. Primary objectives are to help our members age at home, by reducing ER visits and hospitalizations.

When we had the idea for Click2MD, many in the medical community thought the idea was unlikely to gain traction. Who's going to come to you if you don't accept insurance?

Offering affordable quality care at a transparent price, we thought, not only provided a service to small businesses and individuals that couldn't afford health insurance, but also an option many with insurance would find attractive. We believe, when possible, people should keep some form of health insurance. However, what is often misunderstood is as premiums increase and high deductible policies become more common, out of pocket expenses are increasing. At the same time, progressively lower reimbursement rates have resulted in physicians spending less time on each patient.

As the insurance renewal period approaches, we think many businesses and individuals will be reminded of how expensive healthcare has become and the need for an affordable quality solution. At Click2MD, we want to increase people's quality of life and save them money by decreasing the likelihood of expensive hospitalizations or ER visits. We do this by dedicating ourselves to helping people manage their chronic conditions and other medical issues.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/health/covid-19-health-insurance.html

Some Workers Face Looming Cutoffs in Health Insurance Coverage is a major expense for employers, especially those in small businesses, as they deal with the pandemic’s economic fallout. Many may face end-of-year renewal deadlines that are harder and harder to afford.

One of the reasons we started Click2MD was we’ve consistently seen, year after year, more people wanting to age at home. While home health services have grown, it's mostly focused on aides, but not the physician side of the equation. At Click2MD we believe successfully aging at home is helped by having a dedicated, on-call physician that works hand in hand with other home health caregivers, such as aides.

So, what value does a physician bring to the home health equation? Outside of medical emergencies, a key part of being able to successfully age at home is managing chronic diseases. This not only helps improve one’s quality of life, but reduces ER visits, hospitalizations and costs!

Unfortunately, and we've seen this over the years working at hospitals, one of the most common ways in which individuals end up in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, are through hospitalizations. Often the reasons for hospitalizations relate to a chronic disease, such as diabetes, hypertension, CHF and COPD, not being managed properly. This is where a dedicated physician plays a critical role in any home health care plan.

If you are interested in our medical home care service, please visit us at click2mdny.com or call us directly at (716) 528 0000 for more information.

Let us help you, age at home.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-coronavirus-seniors-aging-in-place-0915-20200918-53wjzlljyjevpitz3t5tcva57u-story.html

COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities have prompted some seniors to receive care at home instead The pandemic also has exposed to adult children just how much care aging parents actually need.

Analyzing and managing medications is critical and helps avoid potential medical errors and excessive prescribing. Read more in our latest blog post.

https://click2md.substack.com/p/are-you-taking-too-many-medications

Are You Taking Too Many Medications? Analyzing and managing medications is critical and helps avoid potential medical errors and excessive prescribing

Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) is seeing an increase in emergency department visits after large declines related to COVID. ECMC CEO Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., PhD said the hospital has been “unbelievably busy” this summer and shared some thoughts on why he believed ER volumes rose.

“When the weather is nice, people are out more, maybe doing work outside their house or maybe they’re outside and fall off a step…The No. 1 mechanism for us is falls: falls off ladders and low-level falls.”

Please be safe and remember to always ensure you and your loved ones minimize risks related to falling hard or awkwardly.

We hope you enjoy these last days of summer!

https://click2md.substack.com/p/falls-remain-leading-cause-of-trauma

Falls Remain Leading Cause of Trauma Visits Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) is seeing an increase in emergency department visits after large declines related to COVID.

A recent New York Times article entitled 'Why People Are Still Avoiding the Doctor (It’s Not the Virus)' along with other reports, including U.S. Census Bureau Survey results, confirm a trend - people are avoiding the doctor. In fact, the decline in visits has been so dramatic that many primary care practices could go out of business permanently.

In this post we explore an often overlooked reason that explains declining office visits and why Click2MD’s direct-to-consumer healthcare model is more relevant than ever.
https://www.click2md.healthcare/blog/peopleareavoidingthedoctor

People Are Avoiding the Doctor. Why? — Click2MD Ultimately, the economic strain on many households caused by the coronavirus pandemic has not created a new healthcare issue, but rather exacerbated one that existed.

According to Genworth's Cost of Care Survey* a private room in a nursing home costs $12,167 per month, or $400 a day. A semi-private room in a nursing home costs $11,558 per month, or $380 a day. The cost of an assisted living facility is $4,443 per month, or $146 per day. An adult day health care program costs $1,121 per month, or $37 per day. Traditional home health care aides assist seniors with daily activities of living, light housekeeping, offer medication reminders and serve as companions. Their wages typically add up to $4,839 per month, or $159 per day. Many of these costs are unfortunately paid out-of-pocket and are not covered by Medicare, which may surprise many and often leads to financial stress.

At Click2MD our goal is to keep our medical home care members out of long-term care facilities so they may age at home - improving one's quality of life, while also resulting in significant cost savings. We believe we can do this via preventive, proactive and compassionate care with an engaged physician. We charge $350 per month, or $12 per day, with no surprise billing and the ability to cancel at any time.

To learn more about our medical home care membership please visit us at click2mdny.com.

https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care.html *Buffalo Area, NY (median)

Cost of Long Term Care by State | Cost of Care Report | Genworth Discover and compare the average cost of long term care by care facilities and state with our yearly reports.

The economic impact of COVID-19 has unfortunately left many without health insurance coverage. Employers may also be forced to cut their contributions to health insurance leaving employees to cover a larger portion of the cost. The article below provides a detailed overview of how one can navigate losing your health insurance to ensure continuing coverage is maintained. It also provides a good overview of the costs involved and insurance terminology that often confuses many. For example, here are some commonly referenced terms:

Deductible: how much you’ll have to shell out before a plan’s coverage kicks in.

Co-pays: the fixed amount you’ll pay for health-care services after you’ve paid your deductible.

Co-insurance: the percentage you’ll still be on the hook for with covered services after your deductible is paid.

We believe it is important to be covered by some form of health insurance in order to protect against large and unexpected medical bills. However, Click2MD works outside of the traditional health insurance environment and aims to deliver quality care to patients at an affordable transparent price with no surprise billing. Our focus is on preventive and acute care in order to keep you healthy, which we believe reduces ER visits, hospitalizations and the total cost of care.

We offer physician house calls, medical home care services, preventive medicine, prescription management services and sick care visits in-office and virtually. Visit our site at click2mdny.com for more information.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/08/out-of-work-what-you-need-to-know-about-getting-health-insruance.html

Out of work? Here's what you need to know about getting health insurance The pandemic has led to millions of Americans losing their jobs and their health insurance. Here's what to do about the latter.

We have been working with Kim and Quality Living Homecare. They are responsible and compassionate. Great to work with!

We are now offering physician house calls & home care services. Our goal is to help individuals age at home and avoid costly ER visits and recurrent hospitalizations. The link below provides answers to frequently asked questions related to our medical home care services. Please reach out to us if you have any questions, comments or suggestions at (716) 528-0000 or [email protected].

https://www.click2md.healthcare/faq

FAQ — Click 2 MD How Our Membership Works and other Frequently Asked Questions.

Healthcare in America is a unique industry in which the costs of services are not disclosed up front. Can you imagine ordering online or going to a store that does not disclose prices? It is not a sustainable model.

Click2MD is a direct primary care (DPC) and medical home care practice. The 'direct' refers to the relationships with our patients. We disclose the cost of care up front and directly bill without the involvement of insurance. For example, a sick care visit whether done virtually or in person is $55 for our members. There are no surprise bills after the visit and the cost does not vary based on how long it takes to make an initial diagnosis.

Click2MD's medical home care offering is built on a simple premise - we want to help people age at home on their own terms. We work with home health aides, other providers, family and offer in person and virtual house calls. We also keep open communication with family.

Our model is membership based. This ensures our practice size is limited and our patients receive quality care based on cumulative knowledge (i.e. you do not have to explain your medical history or circumstances constantly). We are also able to prescribe medications and facilitate discounted labs, including COVID-19 testing.

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"Even though the US spends trillions of dollars on healthcare, much of that is wasted. The funding gets used up by bureaucrats that have to code and bill every action a doctor takes, by doctors and hospital administrators paid far more than their European counterparts and by the soaring cost of drugs. A study last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association found at least $760bn was wasted in unnecessary health spending — more than the US spends on primary and secondary education."

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How coronavirus broke America’s healthcare system The US spends $3.6tn a year on health. Why does the pandemic threaten so many of its hospitals?

The daily update on coronavirus COVID-19 from Craig R. Smith, MD (Chair, Department of Surgery) at Columbia Presbyterian is a daily must read. Usually quite short in length, Dr. Smith sends an update to faculty and staff about pandemic response and priorities. Excerpts from today's note we found interesting. As Dr. Smith concludes: "No one of us is smarter than all of us."

"Even more interesting, the CU anesthesiology and ICU teams have been working night and day to implement split-ventilation experiments that will allow one ventilator to support more than one patient. "

"It would be nice to say that our split-ventilator experiment is first-in-man, but therein hangs an interesting story. In pursuit of increased ventilator capacity during natural disasters, Neyman and Irvin (Acad Emerg Med 2006;13:1246-9) described successful in vitro ventilation of four simulated lungs with one ventilator. 11 years later, Kevin Menes MD was in charge of the ER at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas when 215 victims of the country music concert mass shooting poured in. Dr. Menes thought of Dr. Neyman’s experiments because they had been residents together, and he applied the technique successfully to some of his GSW victims that night."

https://columbiasurgery.org/news/covid-19-update-32320

COVID-19 Update: 3/23/20 | Columbia University Department of Surgery Each day during the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Craig Smith, Chair of the Department of Surgery, sends an update to faculty and staff about pandemic response and priorities. Stay up to date with us.

Patient Education: Coronavirus COVID-19

The below overview was produced by UpToDate. UpToDate is a software system that is a point-of-care medical resource used and trusted by many physicians and healthcare providers. UpToDate is owned by Wolters Kluwer, a global information services company based in the Netherlands.

CLICK2MD IS NOW WORKING WITH A LAB PARTNER TO FACILITATE COVID-19 TESTING IN NEW YORK STATE. It is done through a nasal swab. If interested please call us at 716-528-0000 or e-mail us at [email protected]. We are not making any profit on the test and are merely facilitating it. Telemedicine visits are also available as usual. Please visit our website for more details (https://www.click2mdny.com/).

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-the-basics

Patient education: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (The Basics) - UpToDate Coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, is an infection caused by a specific virus called SARS-CoV-2. It first appeared in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China.

Walmart's ambitions in healthcare and the details around their plans to offer $30 checkups and $25 dental cleanings at Supercenters is interesting. We think it's a good idea whose time has come - transparency in care and price. The challenge they and others will face in promoting this model will continue to be educating the end consumer and demonstrating cost savings, while not sacrificing the quality of the care.

We at Click2MD embrace a similar practice style, which is increasingly referred to as Direct Primary Care (DPC), although this terminology is not used in the article. In the DPC model, healthcare practitioners, such as physicians, directly bill patients often avoiding the involvement of insurance. The logic being, by cutting the overhead expense related to billing and administration it reduces operating costs, which can be passed along to the consumer.

Simple and Affordable.



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-25/walmart-takes-on-cvs-amazon-with-low-price-health-care-clinics

Checkup for $30, Teeth Cleaning $25: Walmart Gets Into Health Care The retail giant wants to grab a share of the $3.6 trillion in health spending by leveraging its 150 million weekly shoppers.