Pricing Changes for 2022

Plum Pack!

At this time, we are raising our prices for most of our membership tiers. These pricing changes will go into effect on March 1st, 2022. Our new pricing sets are as follows:

Children, 0 to 17 years of age: $15 per month (an increase of $5/month)

Adults, 18 to 39 years of age: $55 per month (an increase of $6/month)

Older Adults 40 to 64 years of age: $75 per month (an increase of $6/month)

Senior Adults 65 and up: $89 per month (no change)

We had to make this difficult decision because of several factors including the increasing complexity of the services that we deliver at our clinic and the rising costs of necessary supplies and equipment for our business.

For example, pre-pandemic, a box of 200 latex gloves would cost $9.95, now it costs $24.95 for that same box of gloves.

We remain committed to delivering affordable and accessible health care services. These price increases will allow us to continue to deliver excellent care and service.

We appreciate you for being a part of the service, and our unending thanks for being a part of the Plum Pack.

Sincerely,

Drs. Paul Thomas, MD Raquel Orlich, DO and Leslie Rabaut DO

Should you have questions, do not hesitate to call our office at 313.444.5630)

A Sample of Lab Test Cost Savings

A friend posted this image on Facebook with the notation: "thank God for health insurance". 

While it's important to have health insurance, it's also important to understand how it inflates and distorts prices for health care. In the above photo, the insurance price for laboratory testing is shown clearly. What's interesting is if these labs were obtained through our clinic, they would have cost a fraction of the amount reported. Here's a test by test comparison:

A comparison of lab costs between typical insurance billing and our prices at Plum Health DPC

What's crazy here is that the person is being billed at a 765% mark-up from the actual cost of the service. This is why health care in America is so much more expensive - hospitals and health care providers dramatically mark up costs and then 'discount' these costs for insurance companies.

This price 'gamesmanship' is bad for health care consumers. It's bad for folks with insurance and even worse for folks who are uninsured. For example, if this person had 80/20 insurance coverage for these labs, they would end up paying $162.20 - the insurance company would 'pay' $658.80 or 80% and the insured person would pay the remaining 20% of costs or $162.20. 

However, if this person were uninsured, they would bear the full brunt of these charges. The uninsured person would pay the entire $811 for labs that actually cost $106. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day,

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Medication Price Comparison in Detroit

As a part of our service, we do free consultations for folks struggling to pay for their medications. Medication pricing is a hot topic in the health care field and overall health system - we've all heard about drug companies raking in huge profits on drugs that used to cost just a few dollars. 

I bring this up because real people in our community are struggling to pay for their blood pressure meds, diabetes meds, blood thinners, and other pharmaceutical products. Even worse, they are paying inflated prices through the "retail pharmacy" like CVS, Meijer Pharmacy, or Walgreens. 

We give folks free consultations at Plum Health, and a big part of this is price checking their medications. Today, I had someone in the community reach out to me to ask for a price check on a whole list of medications that they take. Here's what we found:

DRUG LIST                      PLUM HEALTH Price/pill, Price/month            Insurance price/month

Atenolol 25 mg                  $0.018/pill or                  $0.54/month                     $12.99/mo

Carbidopa/Levodopa 250/10   $0.096/pill or         $2.88/month                     $47.80/mo

Finasteride 5mg                     $0.073/pill or              $2.21/month                       $15.40/mo

Flomax 0.4 mg                          $0.11/pill or                $3.40/month                     $62.75/mo

Metformin 1000 mg                  $0.0129/pill or          $0.38/month                     $12.99/mo

Levothyroxine 50 mcg                $0.27/pill              $8.25/month                       $33.67/mo

Plavix 75 mg is                            $0.06/pill               $1.92/month                         $12.99/mo

Brilinta 90 mg is                        $5.54/pill               $166.20/month                    $999.35/mo

It's eye opening, even after doing this type of medical care for the last 8 months, to see these prices side by side. The left hand column has the drug name, the second column has the Plum Health price per pill, the third column has the Plum Health price per month, and the final column has the insurance-based price per month. 

Again, this gets at the main principle: if you use a third party payment system to purchase things in the market place, the prices become inflated. However, if you buy things directly from vendors in the market place using your own money, costs tend to be less. We are able to get these low prices because we buy medication in bulk from whole sale medication suppliers. 

If you have any questions about medication prices, please feel free to call us at 313.444.5630. We routinely save folks about 50 - 90% on their medication prices. In the example above, this is about how much this person will save. 

Have a wonderful day,

Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC