For us, the state of your health,

and our practice, is personal

Since starting at Southdale Internal Medicine, it has been my goal to establish long-term relationships with you, my patients.  I have strived to work in partnership with you to help achieve the best health outcomes possible.  I have done so by working hard to prevent and manage disease in the clinic, as well as standing by your side should you have been ill in the hospital.  I’m proud of the numerous, strong relationships that have cultivated in the last five years.

In building these connections, I have gleaned insight into what will be needed to continue to strengthen these relationships moving forward.  My initial years of practice have clearly shown me that there needs to be more to taking care of you than just the rushed doctors’ office visit.  I believe it is the time between office visits when real prevention, wellness and healing takes place.  Because the current healthcare environment limits the doctor-patient relationship to the rushed office visit (…and it is only going to get worse), I feel it imperative to innovate now. 

I am truly looking forward to our new paradigm of care delivery that will allow us to expand our care for you beyond the physical office visit.  By freeing ourselves from the arbitrary limitations cast on us by insurance companies, we can finally offer you the services that we, as your doctors and you as the patients and family members really need. We will be able to schedule time to consult with you by phone or by e-mail instead of having to rush those communications between jam packed office visit schedules.  Finally, we will be able to devote more time to the complex scenarios that we typically confront in office visits that obviously deserve more than the few rushed minutes that we can currently offer. 

While this is a big change, I feel it is an absolutely necessary change.  This change is the only way for us to maintain the level of service that you have come to expect from Southdale Internal Medicine while staying viable, but more importantly, because it will allow us to improve our practice to offer the services that you need and we want to provide.  I am excited because this change will protect and strengthen the close doctor-patient relationships with you that we have committed ourselves to building.

In an effort to enhance our care for our patients and continue to remain independent, we feel it is necessary to change our business model.  We want our patients to have the best care.  By eliminating the layers of bureaucracy that comes with the health plans, we can dedicate all our time and resources on the doctor patient relationship, providing our patients better care and service.  We believe we will be able to provide superior care at an affordable cost.  With this change, we will also e able to expand our services to our patients by offering 24/7 online scheduling, treatment over the phone when appropriate, and text message and e-mail communication.

Dr. Gary Brunkow’s

Statement

The current insurance system is making it impossible to provide good medical care. Previously insurance requirements were just a hassle with  paper work. Then contracts became very costly with exploding administrative work taking an enormous amount of staff time. Now incentives from insurance companies have become immoral. I'm now a conscientious objector. Insurances give me a passing grade and financial incentives to withhold medical care and not individualize care. If a treatment works in 80% of patients, I'm forced to give the treatment to the other 20% of my patients and not individualize the treatment plan. Patients are not best served by physicians making decisions with those incentives. No longer contracting with insurance companies allows me to individualize treatments and be creative in customizing medical care for each patient. I can return to being a professional and practicing medicine based on medical education. I no longer am a data collector following a check list to report to insurances for financial gain. Our clinic can now be patient centered form doctors who care.

Dr. Merlin Brown’s

Statement

I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. Primary care medicine allows me to be both a scientist and a friend to my patients. Caring for the medical needs of my patients and establishing long term relationships has always been my goal as a physician. I take care of the person, not just their condition.  Years of knowing my patients provides me with a unique perspective in caring for them in the office or in the hospital. It’s this type of care that is in the best interest of the patient.  Providing this type of care is why I became a primary care physician.

    In recent years, internal medicine practices such as ours have almost completely disappeared.  Third party payers, insurance challenges and non-medical decision makers are making it harder and harder to focus on the patient rather than the process. Independent groups such as ours are particularly challenged by third party involvement. As a group, our choices are limited. We can either dissolve our practice, join a larger corporate owned practice or make changes to our practice that allow us to stay independent and enhance our care opportunities for our patients.

    The decision to no longer accept insurance is the change we needed to make. It was a very difficult one. I know that not participating with insurance carriers will create some added challenges for our patients. I hope those challenges will be temporary while our patients get used to the new system. And I hope that our sensible pricing system reflecting the service and follow-up provided will be understood as necessary to keep our practice viable. I believe that the new care opportunities for visits and consults, telephone and email, will result in better services and allow us to continue to provide the type of care our patients expect and deserve for many years to come.

    I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. I still do. With the patient as my primary focus. Practicing medicine the way it was meant to be practiced.

Dr. Gary Ivins’s

Statement

Why do I think that having a cash based practice is so important?

In my opinion, we have struggled against insurance companies for too long.  They provide little if any value.  Their sole role is to pay claims and the trend is for them to try to deny everything and keep your premium dollars for themselves.

They continue to add “rules” that change frequently and take me away from why I practice medicine.  I practice medicine because of the people who come and see me and honor me with their trust in my skills and bedside manner.

Further, I see medicine at a high level being quickly and surely extinguished if we continue to capitulate to insurance companies.  I feel Southdale Internal Medicine is a very unique practice and if we are going to survive, we must evolve.  I tell my colleagues who are not in my group that we are either 5 years behind or 15 years ahead of the time.  I so very much hope that we are 15 years ahead.

Dr. David Walcher’s

Statement

Dr. Jacob Liston’s

Statement