Increasing healthcare costs is a leading concern in the United States, as about 44 million Americans have no health insurance, and 38 million Americans have inadequate insurance.
To reduce healthcare costs, recently, there has been tremendous focus on the idea and thought of using and expanding primary care. Studies have also shown that people with trusted relationships with their primary care providers spend less on their healthcare.
Let’s talk about how primary care can lower your healthcare cost and where you can go in Irmo, SC, for high-quality primary care.
How Do Primary Care Doctors Lower Your Healthcare Spending
Your whole health comprises not only your physical health but also your emotional, behavioral, and mental health, and social factors, affecting your overall health and well-being. A primary care provider understands and manages such drivers of your health, keeps you healthy, and reduces your healthcare spending.
Primary Care Curbs Issues Before They Become Serious
Many medical issues do not manifest themselves in the form of symptoms at their early stages but show symptoms at their advanced stages – when they can not only severely affect a patient’s quality of life but also break the bank. Visiting a primary care doctor regularly means your underlying health issues will be detected early and treated easily.
Moreover, they also coordinate with healthcare specialists to ensure that the treatment you receive is working for you and that you are on the path to recovery.
Primary Care Focuses on Preventive Care
While other levels of healthcare are mainly focused on disease management, primary care is also focused on prevention and health promotion. Primary care providers protect you and keep you out of the hospital by providing preventive screening and vaccines.
Regular preventive care can be inconvenient, but statistically, it will most likely save your life and reduce your healthcare cost.
Primary Care Reduces Expensive Emergency Visits
One of the most avoidable out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for an individual is an emergency room visit for non-life-threatening events like minor aches, cuts, burns, bruises, and allergies. Such visits cost ten times compared to a visit to a walk-in clinic. Walk-in clinics address your not-so-life-threatening disease and, at the same time, lower your healthcare spending.
Many primary care providers also provide services after regular hours. Patients can call their PCP for urgent medical needs after regular hours instead of going to an emergency room.
Primary Care Helps You Achieve Better Health
Not needing healthcare is the surest way to spend less money on healthcare. Primary care providers are equipped to empower their patients in their health journey. They modify patients’ lifestyles and identify and reduce certain factors that put them at risk for certain illnesses.
Primary Care in Irmo, SC
If you want to achieve and maintain good health without spending too much on healthcare, consider having a primary care provider for comprehensive primary care. At SC Internal Medicine Associates and Rehabilitation, we have a team of highly trained and experienced providers committed to detecting your health concerns, developing a treatment plan, coordinating care with specialists, preventing illnesses, providing ongoing care, and thus reducing your overall healthcare cost.
To schedule an appointment with one of our highly qualified primary care providers, call us today at (803) 749-1111 or request an appointment online by using this appointment request form.
