"Doctor as Renegade" (MN Public Radio)

A great article and video about medical care is available on the Minnesota Public Radio website.  Dr. Susan Rutten Wasson, a physician in private practice, doesn't accept medical insurance.  She does accept cash payment and non-monetary reimbursement from her patients.

In order for Orthodox Christian physicians to provide the best medical care possible according to Orthodox Tradition, they must not allow insurance companies, government reimbursement programs, or secular administrative structures negatively affect the quality of care they offer their patients.  The option of accepting cash reimbursement, but not insurance, is worth considering when constructing a plan to launch an Orthodox Christian medical facility, whether a group or private practice.

Family life and patient care may be simpler and better off the insurance grid.

Attend to Your Own Sickness for Healing

"Our Faith prohibits us to be spies of the sins of others and stresses that we be merciless judges of our own sins. The sick person in the hospital is concerned with his own particular malady so that he has neither the will nor the time to question others who are ill or to mock their illness. Are we not all in this world as patients in a hospital? Does not our own common sense underline that we look at our own illness and not at another's illness? Let no one think that they will be cured of their illness in the other world. This world is merely a hospital and a place for healing and, in that world, there is no hospital; there is only a mansion or only a prison." 

- St. Nicholai of Ziche, The Prologue from Ochrid, April 22nd.