Why This Clinic Ditched Insurance and Embraced Bitcoin - Roger Moczygemba
DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE BITCOIN-FOR-BUSINESS QUICK START GUIDE
This free, 27-page resource includes:
- Six ways ANY business can benefit from Bitcoin
- Some of the best Bitcoin-only businesses to partner with
- Key Bitcoin concepts for people getting started
Dr. Roger Moczygemba, founder of Direct Med Clinic in San Antonio, champions affordable, transparent healthcare through Direct Primary Care. A Texas A&M Health Science Center graduate and Navy-trained Family Practice physician, he has practiced medicine since 1994, specializing in Family Practice, Occupational Medicine, and Urgent Care. Co-leader of the Free Market Medical Association's San Antonio chapter, Dr. Moczygemba integrates Bitcoin payments to align decentralized, peer-to-peer healthcare with sound money, redefining accessibility and cost-efficiency in modern medicine.
🌐 CONNECT WITH ROGER
- 📸 Instagram: @directmedclinicsa on Instagram
- 📘 Facebook: Roger's Facebook page
- 🌍 Website: Roger's Website
- 📺 YouTube: Roger on YouTube
🌐 CONNECT WITH JOSH
- 𝕏 X:@joshuafriedeman
- 🔗 LinkedIn:@joshuafriedeman
- 📺 YouTube:@joshuafriedeman
TAKEAWAYS
Takeaways:
- Dr. Roger Moczygemba discusses how Bitcoin operates as a decentralized currency immune to corruption.
- The Direct Primary Care model allows doctors to focus on patient care without insurance complications.
- Employers can significantly reduce healthcare costs by purchasing memberships for their employees through DPC.
- Bitcoin's adoption in healthcare is still emerging, but it offers a peer-to-peer payment solution that promotes decentralization.
- Moczygemba emphasizes that early adoption of Bitcoin can lead to greater benefits for practices.
- The connection between Bitcoin and direct primary care highlights the importance of transparency in healthcare costs.
SHOW PARTNERS
Mentioned in this episode:
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Strong Wealth: Wealth Management for Bitcoiners, by Bitcoiners
Transcript
When it comes to bitcoin, it kind of goes back to this concept of what we call in the community peer to peer.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, we know what we do.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We know bitcoin is sound and the infrastructure has developed to a point now that it works fairly well and it just needs to scale.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I really feel like that's where we're at with bitcoin.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's proven.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's proven to the point that an infrastructure has developed, and all we're doing now is waiting for it to scale.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So if somebody feels like they're late to the game, I think not.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, we're right where I think I'm happy to be, you know, ready for it to scale.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I'm so happy now that Direct Med clinic can accept bitcoin for payment for services.
Josh Friedman:Welcome to the Business Bitcoinization show.
Josh Friedman:The show dedicated to helping you enrich your life and grow your business with bitcoin, the hardest money on planet Earth.
Josh Friedman:I'm your host, Josh Friedman, and our guest today is Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger Mochegemba, who heads up a direct primary care clinic in San Antonio.
Josh Friedman:Today we're going to be talking about the connections between the DPC model and accepting bitcoin payments.
Josh Friedman:We're also going to be talking about why it pays to be early to something.
Josh Friedman:He was the first physician at Teladoc.
Josh Friedman:He was also an early adopter of the DPC model, and now he's early to bitcoin.
Josh Friedman:We're going to get to our interview with Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger right after this.
Josh Friedman:Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger, welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I'm glad to be here.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Thanks for inviting me.
Josh Friedman:So I'd like to start off every single interview with a few questions that help us to get to know you a little bit better and give us some insight for our own lives.
Josh Friedman:Are you ready for these?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Yes.
Josh Friedman:Question number one is this.
Josh Friedman:When and how did you first learn about bitcoin?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba: first heard about Bitcoin in: Dr. Roger Mochegemba:My.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:My neighbor told me about it, but it seemed too, too, too far out there.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I never really got interested in it.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I just wasn't.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It just wasn't time for me then.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And so then last year, a trusted friend of mine was telling me about stuff he was doing with crypto.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then I, I.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:My interest peaked at that time.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then I got an email from John Gordon at Satoshi Health Advisors telling me how I could incorporate bitcoin in my practice.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So that's how I got started with bitcoin.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's how I heard about it and that's how I got started.
Josh Friedman:Question number two is what's an insight or fact about Bitcoin that you wish everyone understood?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I wish that everybody understood that it's a form of currency and it's not just something to invest in.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And most importantly is, it's, it's decentralized and it's direct and that kind of makes it immune to corruption and moral hazard.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So that's, I think we'll talk a little bit more about why.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I really like that because it relates to the way I practice.
Josh Friedman:Now question number three is what is the bitcoin resource you most recommend to other people?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I really like the Seventh Property by Eric Yates.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That was the perfect book for me because goes into some detail about how our monetary systems has, have evolved over the ages.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then it goes, it shows this pattern of, of banking and becoming centralized banking and how governments get involved in that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And there's patterns that he points out of how that has cycled through the ages.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then he does a very good job of introducing Bitcoin and I'm still pretty new to Bitcoin and all.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:He goes into as much technical detail as I think anybody would ever want.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's pretty technical.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So that's why I really like that resource.
Josh Friedman:Question number four is beyond Bitcoin.
Josh Friedman:What's a resource, tool or idea?
Josh Friedman:This has been helpful to you or your practice recently.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That the idea of this, this direct pay concept.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I'm a doctor obviously and this has made all the world of difference for me stepping away from the third party traditional model with insurance and dealing directly with my patients through indirect primary care or direct pay.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So I, I talk to business owners about that who are struggling with the high cost of health care for their employees.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I tell them how this model and I show them how, tell them and show them how this model can save them money on their health care spend and provide affordable access to a doctor for their employees.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So that's made a great big difference for me in business and also in my career, the way I practice.
Josh Friedman:Now we have our final, what we call our arbitrary but insightful question and it's this.
Josh Friedman:As a general life principle, it's better to ask why or why not.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, I think the, the main thing there is you're asking questions.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So why or why not in my mind is it doesn't matter it's this one or that one.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:But the most important thing is that you're asking and, and when you're asking.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I firmly Believe that things around you will start to appear.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, you'll find answers.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know Scripture says seek and you shall find.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I firmly believe that when a person is inquisitive and they start looking in their environment, reading, listening to podcasts, or talking to people, they'll get their questions answered.
Josh Friedman:That's a great answer.
Josh Friedman:I don't think we've ever had just an ask questions answer before, but I think it's a good word, good thing for people to remember.
Josh Friedman:Well, Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger, we're here today to talk about your practice, and you've recently begun accepting Bitcoin.
Josh Friedman:You've just introduced the concept of direct primary care in your previous answers.
Josh Friedman:We've had one other, I think just one other direct primary care physician before and some other people that have similar models.
Josh Friedman:But I love the concept and I would really be interested in hearing a little bit about how you got started with direct primary care and some of the strengths you've seen, both for doctors from the business side, but also for patients.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Great.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Yeah.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I was living in Utah and I began working for an urgent care there that was a hybrid.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:They were doing insurance, but they also were doing direct primary care.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I thought, oh my gosh, how refreshing is this to be treating people that are paying me directly and employers were doing that with this clinic.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I thought, wow, this is amazing.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And so I came across a guy that was trying to franchise this model and I said, hey, well, I can help you in San Antonio.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So I, I started working with him to do that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And make a long story short, it didn't work out with the mo.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:The, with working with him, but I ended up starting the clinic myself in San Antonio.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it's called Direct Med Clinic.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And as far as I know, it's the first direct primary care clinic in San Antonio.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it's been so refreshing, like I mentioned, to practice medicine this way.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it's so rewarding to get the feedback from patients telling me like, I'm so glad you're doing this because if you weren't, I wouldn't have anything.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it's rewarding to see people respond to the treatment that I know they need rather than try to be a doctor that is funneled or conditioned to just provide treatment that I'm going to get reimbursed for, you know, working with the third party insurance company.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I, I saw this so much during COVID You know, I was able to treat people the way my research and training and resources were, were telling me they needed to be treated.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And people responded to that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And many people told me, like, thank you for.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:For saving my life, thank you for saving my brother's life, my parents, you know, so that's.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That was so rewarding to do that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And now we have other things in our practice that we can offer people that aren't reimbursed by insurance, that work for people.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So I kind of forgot the question.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Did I answer the question?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I got kind of on my soapbox a little bit.
Josh Friedman:Yeah, I think you answered the question, except for maybe some of the.
Josh Friedman:What are some of the benefits for doctors as far as the business model goes?
Josh Friedman:You know, you've just talked about how it's nice to be able to practice medicine, how you think it should be practiced, but what does the financial side look like in comparison to a more conventional model?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We don't have a waiting room full of people.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We get to spend time with our patients and talk to them, get to know them.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Doctors in primary care might have a panel size of two or three or 4,000 patients.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Ours is under a thousand usually.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So we spend time and then the.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Financially, we don't have to have extra staff, just pounding the insurance companies all the time to get reimbursed for the services.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So we don't need that expense of extra office staff.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And what patients pay us pays the bills.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it provides a nice lifestyle with time and income for us.
Josh Friedman:So one of the interesting things about direct primary care is that at least all of the models that I've seen, it's just basically a monthly retainer.
Josh Friedman:You kind of pay a certain amount each month to the doctor.
Josh Friedman:You might have some additional context or insight to provide there.
Josh Friedman:That model makes so much more sense to me because everyone's used to paying for things on a monthly basis now.
Josh Friedman:Now, I will admit that paying for software every month as opposed to just paying one time is a little frustrating, but at least it's upfront and clear as opposed to working with insurance companies where a lot of the costs can be hidden or it can be hard to really get down to the bottom of things.
Josh Friedman:So is that a pretty, pretty good assessment of how it works for you, or are there some additional costs that might be involved for your patients?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's a great, great point.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And we try to be very, very transparent.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:All of our prices are listed on our website, and when somebody comes in and they need labs or imaging, we tell them at the time of service what it's going to cost.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, a clinic can contract with a lab, and we get lab pricing or discount pricing.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Because we're a clinic and my clinic has done the same thing with imaging facilities in the area.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So we get direct cash pay pricing for that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So imagine this if you're a patient and you're in the room with the doc and he says, well, I think we're going to need a chest X ray.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Go up to the front desk and tell him, you know, so at the front desk our patients will pay 50 or $75, whatever it costs for a chest X ray right there.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then they go get the, the imaging and they don't pay again.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So it's upfront and it's transparent.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:If someone needs labs, like the basic labs we, we get on most people, the routine labs might be 20 or $30 with us.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Then if somebody tries to go through their insurance, that same set of labs might be 100 or $200.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So how, how cool is that?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, that as a patient, you know what it's going to cost you.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So it's, it's a wonderful model, actually.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I, I'm so passionate about the affordable access to primary care that a couple of years ago I testified at the state capitol in Texas to a special committee on health care that we just don't need insurance for primary care.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Because I'm proving, I'm proof that we don't.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, it's affordable and it's accessible.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:People can reach us same day or next day for an appointment.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:They can text us after hours visits.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:If they need us, we'll do a virtual visit with them or we'll text them.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Our goal is to keep people out of the urgent care and emergency room so they have access to us.
Josh Friedman:How realistic is it to have no insurance?
Josh Friedman:Like you've just said, direct primary care can operate without insurance.
Josh Friedman:How realistic is it to have a medical system where it's direct primary care and maybe health sharing or crowdfunding type services such as crowd health, as opposed to our current setup with a more conventional approach with insurance companies being involved every step of the way.
Josh Friedman:Is that realistic for an entire state or an entire country, or are there reasons why it wouldn't necessarily work?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's a great question, Josh.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it is realistic in order to make it work.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Right.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I think that we need to take a look at what insurance was designed to do.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's designed to take care of the major catastrophic stuff that's going to break the bank if, if it happens to us.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, for example, if we need a major surgery or if we get cancer, well, we all need to pay into a Fund.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's insurance that will help us.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's what insurance was designed to do.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Health care insurance has gotten a little greedy.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, we don't need it for primary care, just like we don't need our car insurance to pay for oil change or new tires.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, it's, it's the same concept.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And so there are other models out there, like you mentioned, that can be used to keep the cost of care and these catastrophic events more affordable.
Josh Friedman:One of the things that we mentioned before starting recording is that you found yourself early to a number of different things.
Josh Friedman:And I'd be interested to hear about.
Josh Friedman:First of all, now that bitcoin is at least flirting with 100,000.
Josh Friedman:It's been over and it's been under recently, and by the time this comes out, it might be over again.
Josh Friedman:But, you know, in the $100,000 range, a lot of people think that they're late to bitcoin.
Josh Friedman:Could you talk about kind of being early to things, including bitcoin, and how that has been beneficial for you?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Yeah, I, I love finding ways to do things better.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I think because of that, some things have come on my radar that I've been able to help develop and grow.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:One of them was a company called Teladoc.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I was the first doctor doing Teladoc consults, and I was the president of the physician association when it started and helped grow the nationwide network.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I, I knew what I could do.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I knew I was competent and confident being a doctor and I could take care of people that way.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I, I knew what, what I could do and what I couldn't do.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I knew if someone could have a bad outcome, and I, I didn't go there, wouldn't let that happen, you know, so telemedicine was just a tool for a trained doctor.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So I was, I feel really fortunate to have helped develop that and had no bad outcomes with that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then direct primary care is the same way.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I feel so fortunate to have found that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I wish I would have found it many years earlier, but it, then, then when it comes to bitcoin, it's, it's kind of goes back to this concept of what we call in the community, peer to peer.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, we, we know what we do.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We know bitcoin is, is sound and the infrastructure has developed to a point now that it works fairly well, and we just need, it just needs to scale.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I, I really feel like that's where we're at with bitcoin.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's proven, it's proven to the point that an infrastructure has developed and all we're doing now is waiting for it to scale.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So if, if somebody feels like they're late to the game, I think, I think not.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You know, we're, we're, we're right where I think I'm happy to be, you know, ready for it to scale.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I'm so happy now that Direct Med Clinic can accept Bitcoin for payment for services.
Josh Friedman:And what is it that you use for accepting Bitcoin?
Josh Friedman:I'd be interested for you to just talk about that as well as maybe how your clientele have responded to that option.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Yeah, so we, we switched to a service that people can pay with their credit card or they can, they can pay with Bitcoin.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's called Zap.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Right.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And so from there it goes into my, my Bitcoin wallet and then from there I can move it into a long term storage solution.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So then I've not had a lot of people using Bitcoin for services yet, but I'm still trying to break into the community, get to know people and share what we do and talk about the value of what we do and educate people about Bitcoin myself.
Josh Friedman:Excellent.
Josh Friedman:So one of the things that I understand that you do is have employer kind of B2B relationships on the direct primary care side, if my understanding is correct.
Josh Friedman:I'd be interested to learn a little bit more about that because we've talked about the peer to peer side of things, but there's also just a benefit in giving employees access to something like this through their job.
Josh Friedman:How does that work?
Josh Friedman:And I guess is this something that is beginning to be widely practiced or is it, I'm guessing it's still mostly, you know, one to one or, you know, working with families.
Josh Friedman:But how does, how has this worked for you so far?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Yeah, it's been working very well.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:As, as I was growing up in my medical career, I was fortunate to have interactions with a lot of employers and I learned what they need from their clinic or from their doctor.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So as I started Direct Med Clinic, I naturally started talking to employers.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And what I found was that employers with say, less than 50 people really struggle to find affordable solutions to provide a health care benefit.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And sometimes they just go without and sometimes it, it's just such a financial burden on them.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So I, I tell them how we can structure this, this partnership with them.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Like you, here's what a membership cost.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You buy these memberships for your people and this, these are all the benefits they get and I, I show them they can save 20, 30, 40% on their healthcare spend on that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And so these employers will just buy the memberships or buy half of the memberships for their employees.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It works really well.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And yeah, I really, it just works really well.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:People have affordable access.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba: nic is we give them access to: Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Wow.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So people love that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:In Texas, unfortunately, doctors are not allowed to dispense medication out of the office.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So this is in Texas for us, the next best thing to that.
Josh Friedman:So one thing I always like to ask doctors just to get their insights since optimally, doctors are going to be much more in tune with what's happening in the medical world than the average person.
Josh Friedman:Since we have you, and I know that you're highly engaged as a doctor, I'm curious to know your answer to these two questions.
Josh Friedman:First of all, what's something that today seems a little far out there or strange that in the future is going to seem normal and common sense?
Josh Friedman:And then the next thing is, what is something that seems normal today that in the future we're going to look back on it and say, I can't believe we did that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:All right, so a couple of things that have piqued my interest in.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I've been amazed at what is happening right now with, in, in some practices.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:One of them is PRP or platelet rich plasma injections.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:This is some amazing science.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And the, the, the community, the orthopedic community is still a little bit unsure about it, but it, it works.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I think it's just a matter of we need to know who we're giving it to.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We need to have the right indications.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:In other words, we just have to have the right fit and we'll have good outcomes with it.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We've started to do that and that's, this is something that's not traditionally reimbursed through insurance companies, but it, it works and it, it changes people's lives.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So another one that I've come across recently is I met a doctor who started a practice administering red light therapy.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So he told me some, some cases he had and it's just, just blows me away.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So that's something that is, those are two things that are new that I, I hope that we will find their place in medicine and, and it'll, it'll be developed to help people and change their lives.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And then the other question about in the future we'll look back and, and say, I can't believe we did that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I I think that I hope that we'll look back and say, oh, my gosh, I can't believe we were eating some of the stuff we were eating.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:There's some foods out there that are just not good for our health.
Josh Friedman:Are there some things that you would recommend when it comes to the foods?
Josh Friedman:Obviously, there's maybe a spectrum of things you should and shouldn't be eating that are either bad or absolutely terrible for you.
Josh Friedman:But are there certain things you would say definitely stay away from at this point in time, you'd feel comfortable saying, don't eat these things.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:In general, the more whole foods, the better and the less processed foods, the better.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:There was another thing that I wanted to.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:To mention is that one of the things I love about Bitcoin and I think why it resonates with me so much is, is because it in.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:In my model of direct primary care, it's direct, and then it's in.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:In our, in our centralized monetary system, it's not direct.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Right.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:There are these third parties that get involved in the monetary system, like with, with the Federal Reserve and banking and interest rates there.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:All of that is controlled by a.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Right.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So there's kind of a parallel to that in health care.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I think that Bitcoin is to our traditional monetary system what direct pay and direct primary care is to our health care system.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:There's this.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Healthcare has become very expensive, and it, it has to do with input from the government and insurance companies.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:The government has always wanted health care for everybody, but what they were mandating for everybody was health insurance.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And there's a big difference between what I do, real health care and health insurance.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:By mandating that, they.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:They put in place this thing called the medical loss ratio, which is part of the Affordable Care act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And it says that in small markets, insurers are supposed to pay.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:They have to Pay, by law, 80% of what they collect in premiums back to doctors and hospitals.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:In larger markets, they pay back 85%.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So if you are the insurance company, how do you make your money?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You make it on that 20% or on that 15%.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So if you want to make more money, do you want healthcare spending low or high?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You want it high.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Right.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So that's just an example of how too much government involvement can kind of backfire and cause this bad outcome that so many people experience with the high cost of health care.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So in the direct pay model, we don't have that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:See, it's.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You are a patient.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I'M a doctor.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:You have a sickness.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I know how to treat that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And so there's this direct relationship, the doctor patient relationship.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Okay.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:So I think that's part of the reason why I'm very attracted to Bitcoin and the whole bitcoin community and the Bitcoin movement.
Josh Friedman:Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger, I appreciate you sharing today and I do think there are a lot of connections between direct primary care and peer to peer payments with bitcoin.
Josh Friedman:So I appreciate you integrating the two.
Josh Friedman:Are there any final thoughts do you have with us before we finish up today's interview?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Yeah.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I hope everybody will look into this direct pay model for your own benefit.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:It's a wonderful way to practice medicine and have a relationship with your doctor.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:And I want to thank you for inviting me to come on the podcast and visit and share and where can.
Josh Friedman:People go if they want to keep up with what you and your clinic are doing?
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:That's.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Thank you for asking that.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:The name of the clinic is Direct Med Clinic.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:We're@directmedclinic.com and you can get a lot of info about what we do and direct primary care there.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:I'm also on LinkedIn, so you can go there.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Feel free to reach out and learn more about direct primary care.
Josh Friedman:Great.
Josh Friedman:Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger, thank you so much for your time today.
Josh Friedman:It's been a pleasure.
Dr. Roger Mochegemba:Thank you, Josh.
Josh Friedman:Well, friends, it's a wrap.
Josh Friedman:Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Business Bitcoinization Show.
Josh Friedman:If you want to reach out to either me or Dr.
Josh Friedman:Roger, you can find those links down in the show notes.
Josh Friedman:And if the DPC model is interesting to you, be sure to see if there's one in your area.
Josh Friedman:As always, keep building, keep growing, and until next time, keep living and leading.
Josh Friedman:Well.
