1-800-CALL DOC - For Physicians

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT 1-800-CALL DOC®

1-800-CALL DOC® is the telebrand for CALL DOCTOR MEDICAL GROUP, which is a multi-specialty practice comprised of Board Certified Internists, Family Practitioners and Emergency Medicine physicians as well as Physician Assistants. We began operations in 1985 with one part-time physician -- today we have ten providers and a fulltime digital radiographer. We will not increase beyond eight FTE clinicians but will help others start identical practices even in our home city of San Diego.

We have begun similar practices in several other cities in California, Florida, Arizona, and Illinois. We've been featured on the TODAY SHOW and in magazines such as TIME, FORBES and PEOPLE, among others.

Our physicians utilize the latest medical diagnostic technologies to provide high-quality, comprehensive medical care to patients in the home. We're Physicians Who Make Housecalls^SM.

The housecall is a concept applauded by consumers. It is one of the things that make the good old days, so good. What follows are answers to the questions we most frequently hear from physicians wanting to know more about joining our practice.

1. Are physicians considered employees or independent contractors?

Under the Stark definitions for a qualified Medical Group, at least two physicians should be employees of the medical group. The employed W-2 physicians receive full benefits including Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Paid and CME Time Off, Stock Options and participation in our 401K Retirement Plan. Prior to April of 1996 no restrictions were placed on Medical Groups, so physicians, who have always behaved as independent contractors in the field, were actually independent contractors. From 1996 to 2002, we complied with Medicare which required W-2 status for all physicians billing under a common provider number.

On January 5, 2001 HCFA published clarifying language making it clear that independent contractors may be considered "members of the group." Since it is quite important to meet all regulatory requirements for not only charting but reimbursement rules, and since physicians have always behaved as independent contractors in regards to patient care for their dedicated geographic area, Call Doctor Medical Group physicians re-established the independent contractor status by written contract with the physicians, who are given autonomous control of a geographic area.

2. What is the make-up of your current patient population?

Initially, we chose to focus our marketing efforts on the Medicare-eligible population, whose growing number, high need for care, $0 out-of-pocket cost and decreasing mobility made them an attractive market. As a result, roughly 75% of our current patients are over 65 years old. In the second half of 2000, we began expanding our efforts to include working-age consumers covered by PPO and Indemnity health insurance plans. The result has been an increasing number of younger patients calling for housecalls. Today, our patient population includes those age 4 months to 104 years. The appeal of the physician housecall has proven to be universal and we forecast that our ratio of Medicare patients to those of working age will continue to move toward 60:40, Medicare to non-Medicare.

3. How are physicians compensated in terms of salary and benefits?

Physicians are paid according to a Medicare fee schedule that rewards productivity. Physicians who see an average of seven patients a day, can expect to earn $130,000 - $150,000+ annually, exceeding the regional average as published by the MGMA. We are proud to say that despite the 2007 CMS paycut in home visits, our clinicians were protected from any change in income by the concomitant efficiencies of a new JanusOS contract for IT networking support.

4. What type of training do physicians receive?

Physicians are trained to provide care in the home using leading-edge, portable medical diagnostic equipment including:

Lab Analyzer
Portable EKG
Pulse Oximeter
BioZ Cardio Output Monitoring System
manipulation and reading of digital xrays
interpretation of cardiac impedance

Other aspects of physician training include:

Portable Electronic Medical Record
Clinical and Operational Aspects of Physician Housecalls
Billing and Regulatory Compliance
Communications : Unified Fax Messaging

5. How many hours a week are physicians expected to work and how are they scheduled?

Physicians determine individually how many hours a week they work, with the minimum being 20. Most of our full-time physicians choose to work Monday-Friday from 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM. In San Diego, we are open seven days a week, but our on-call physicians make individual decisions about making home visits on weekends.

Our physicians control their own scheduling with the JanusOS allowing a simple drag-and-drop to schedule follow-up appointments.

6. How much driving should physicians expect to do?

Physicians work with defined geographies and as a result, average only 30 miles per day. JanusOS provides the only integrated mapware into the demographics of the medical record. Simply clicking on the appointment pulls up the patient's name, phone, address and a local map of their home.

7. Are physicians expected to be on-call?

Yes, but nothing like would be expected in an office-based practice. Physicians share call equally and rotate on a weekly basis at 5PM on Fridays.

8. How are hospital admissions handled?

Assuming the patient has a primary care physician, hospital admissions are coordinated through that physician. When no PCP relationship exists, our physicians use a network of hospitals and medical groups in the area, or via the Emergency Room, when required.

9. Is there any guarantee of work?

Our practice receives roughly 100 new patients each month and we are very careful to balance the number of full-time physicians with patient demand. This is an imperfect science with seasonality and other uncontrolled factors. The addition of Physician Assistants has made it immensely more manageable. And with the 'baby-boomers' and their aging parents increasing in number and in dissatisfaction with today's health care system, we see no abatement in demand for the foreseeable future.

10. Whose idea was this, anyway?

1-800-CALL DOC® was the brainchild of Dr. Gresham Bayne, who established the CALL DOCTOR MEDICAL GROUP specifically to provide medical care to patients in their homes. Dr. Bayne, an Emergency Medicine physician for more than 20 years, saw the growing problems with access driving people to the ER, who could be treated in far less costly settings by using newly developed medical and computer technology.

Dr. Bayne has appeared on numerous television programs and in national magazines talking about the benefits of housecalls to physicians, payors and patients. He was recognized in 1999 receiving the Housecall Physician of the Year Award from the American Academy of Home Care Physicians. He served as President of the AAHCP from 2004-2007.

11. Where can I find out more about physicians making housecalls?

Physicians across the country have been making housecalls in greater number each year. There were nearly 4 million visits paid by Medicare in 2006 in the home or rest home. For further insight into this emerging specialty, contact the Washington DC-based, American Academy of Home Care Physicians (AAHCP) on the Web at: www.aahcp.org.

Thank you for your interest in…

1-800-CALL DOC®-
Physicians Who Make Housecalls^SM

Our Waiting Room is Your Living Room^SM.