A Pittsburgh doctor is trying a new approach to health care. Dr. Timothy Wong refuses to take your insurance and instead just charges $35 for a primary care visit. There is no membership or hidden costs.
Wong said by eliminating the overhead of insurance paperwork and staff at iHealth Clinic in East Liberty, he can afford to charge less.
Wong said the low cost is important for people who don't have insurance. He wanted to make it affordable for those people to see a doctor.
Wong said 8.5% of people in Pittsburgh don't have insurance coverage -- which works out to about 25,000 people.
"I worked in the traditional setting for almost five years after residency, and I kind of lost faith in the system," he said. "We had so much inefficiency, we were letting down patients, and it was actually worse than I even realized because I never even saw, really, how many people didn't have insurance."
Wong did his residency at UPMC Shadyside. He opened iHealth seven months ago and is working six days per week to make it work.
He estimates that if he sees 20 patients per day he can earn about 65% of an average doctor's salary, and describes this as much more rewarding.
Some patients do have insurance when they visit iHealth because they said it's easier to get a walk-in appointment and can still pay less than when they use insurance.
Wong said that if additional testing such as blood work has to be sent off site, there could be an additional fee.