The Physician Experience

“The most expensive physician in the state.”

Primary care physician challenges United Healthcare and proves that advanced testing saves lives AND money.

By Dawn Thiselton, PhD Senior Medical Writer/Editor, HDL, Inc.

Dr. Sam Fillingane, DO, in Jackson, Mississippi, manages patients referred with major cardiovascular disease risk from seven southeastern states. He provides a comprehensive exam coupled with aggressive treatment and has been highly successful in reducing inflammation and consequent cardiovascular disease events. His story of a health insurance company’s critique of his practice turning to one of praise tells of the positive impact advanced testing is having in terms of both patient health and medical costs.

In the midst of a busy clinic a few years ago, Dr Fillingane was called by United Healthcare with the simple message, “Do you know that you’re the most expensive physician in the whole state of Mississippi? You write more name brand medications, see your patients more often and run more tests than other physicians.”

However, when asked to check how many of his patients had experienced an adverse event such as heart attack or stroke, had a stent placed, or had bypass surgery, none could be found. The caller acknowledged that treatment for such events is very expensive and Dr Fillingane had very low incidence. He unexpectedly received a second call from United Healthcare two weeks later in a very different tone:

"Dr Fillingane, I just wanted you to know that not only are you NOT the most expensive physician we have in the state of Mississippi, you’re actually one of the least expensive."

"When I examined your data I discovered significant cost-savings in the cardiovascular realm. I just want to thank you for what you are doing and ask you not to change a thing!”

To Dr Fillingane this experience was proof that by practicing good risk prevention medicine, spending time with patients and using the HDL, Inc. test profiles, a physician can really succeed in preventing heart and related chronic diseases. This not only save lives but also money and makes a huge difference to people’s quality of life. As he says, “There are a lot of people having heart attacks and strokes that absolutely don’t have to….in my office over the last 14 years we’ve averaged only 1 patient per year having heart attacks, where the average clinician in the US has 45 per year and in Mississippi the average is close to 65. It’s a matter of teaching other doctors how to do this and not only teach them how to identify the disease state but teach them appropriate treatment and techniques with which to attain better patient compliance.”