State Orders Dr. John Muney to Stop Treating Patients for $79/month

by Dave C. Jones

Folsom, CA - 5 March 2009 @ 0951 PST - I was listening to Tom Sullivan yesterday and heard about Dr. John Muney of New York and his innovative method of servicing those who cannot afford health insurance. In a nutshell, he charges his patients $79 per month plus $10 per visit. In other words, for about $1,000 per year, his patients do not have to worry about routine illnesses or anything else that can be taken care of in Dr. Muney's offices.

Who could possibly have a problem with that plan? Apparently, the New York state insurance regulators do. The state told Dr. Muney that his plan is an insurance policy and he has to be licensed to sell insurance.

Give me a break. The government cries out of one side of its mouth that society has an obligation to ensure that every person has access to health care; then, out of the other side, it berates doctors who do something to make that goal a reality. What the government really wants is complete control of everything. If the government really cared about the people, New York state would have no problem with what Dr. Muney is doing. In fact, the state should be recommending that idea to doctors all over the state.

Unfortunately, the state sees money running through its fingers. Rather than Dr. Muney submitting claims to Medicare, he collects cash. Rather than paying the state insurance licensing fees, he shuns insurance, enabling his patients to pay cash. The government worries that if all doctors did this, the government would not be able to continue employing people to process insurance, doctors could cut overhead by laying off insurance billers and accounts receivable employees, and the economy as we know it would end! Good grief.

The bottom line is that what Dr. Muney is doing here is not conceptually different from what attorneys do when they allow clients to sign a retainer agreement. In essence, a retainer agreement secures the right of the client to call the attorney with any legal problems the retainer agreement says are covered and to have the attorney handle them for an agreed upon rate (either included in the retainer fee, hourly, or flat fee). The "client" may never call the attorney for advice, just as the "patient" may never come in to see Dr. Muney.

I don't know how Dr. Muney's agreements are written or structured, but any good civil attorney should be able to help Dr. Muney modify his agreements so they are essentially putting him on retainer for each of his patients. The agreement would be that Dr. Muney would see the patient within X number of hours for any of the problems he can handle in his office for a retainer fee of $79/month and a flat $10 per problem.

If the state still has problems with the arrangement, it must have a problem with attorney retainer agreements. And, if that is the case, I'm sure there are hundreds or thousands of attorneys who would step up and defend the retainer agreement in both law and medicine.

It's time that people see government for what it is—a leviathan that would rather take complete control of everything rather than fix anything. Just ask Dr. Muney's patients.

For more information:

• New York Post
• News Day
• Crain's

Updated 16 March 2009 @ 1305 PDT: I was listening to Glenn Beck's show on Fox News late last week (Thursday, 12 May 2009, I believe) and heard Dr. Muney giving an update on the situation. Apparently the State of New York changed its mind--somewhat. The State wrote to the doctor and said he could continue to offer his fixed fee $79/month medical care for preventative health but if someone came in complaining of an illness or injury, he would have to charge them at least $33 for that visit. Bureaucracy at work. I hope he is still fighting this with the state, but at least he is not completely shut down . . .

Updated 7 May 2009 @ 2258 PDT: Reuters reports that New York State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell, IV of the 68th Assembly District will be introducing a bill to allow primary care physicians—such as Dr. Muney—to offer services using a flat-fee approach. I have not been able to verify that report yet and another site reports information that may contradict the Reuters story. The New York Post reports that New York State Senator Andrew J. Lanza of the 24th Senate District will be introducing the legislation. Of course, both men could introduce such a bill in their respective chambers, so the two stories don't necessarily mean the reports are incorrect. I will attempt to verify the information and find a link to the legislation when it is available. (Thanks to reader Chris H.—who told me he works for Dr. Muney—for pointing out these articles.)

Updated 8 July 2009 @ 1950 PDT: Apparently other doctors are getting tired of dealing with insurance companies and have opted to try Dr. Muney's approach: flat-rate unlimited healthcare. Let's hope these Seattle doctors have less trouble with the state than Dr. Muney did!

Updated 19 March 2010 @ 1330 PDT: I just got asked by Keith (see comments below) whether there is an update on this issue. I hadn't heard anything, but given the state of the healthcare debate, I thought it would be interesting to look into this. I did some digging on (where else?) the Internet and found the website for Dr. Muney's medical group, AMG. It still shows that people can get unlimited preventative healthcare for $79 a month. This appears to be the same status as it was in as of 16 March 2009 when the State of New York changed its stance to allow preventative care for a flat fee but not illness or injury care. And the Democrats wonder why there is so much opposition to their healthcare "reform" bill!

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Dave Jones is not your typical liberal California criminal defense trial attorney. He is a libertarian who believes in less government, more guns, and greater freedom–in short, the principles on which this country was founded. He can be reached at his law firm, the American Justice Center, via e-mail at djones at AmericanJusticeCenter.com. Read more of his writings at blog.AmericanJusticeCenter.com.