Amy Townsend MD: a different type of practice

Dr. Amy Townsend of Bridge City uses a different business model in her family practice as a primary care physician. The model is called Direct Primary Care and is a membership-based practice that doesn't file insurance. The monthly membership takes care of all office visits and in office care. She was the first doctor to adopt this method of doctoring in Southeast Texas in 2020, because she had an issue with all the red tape and requirements of the insurance companies. She feels it interferes with giving proper care that is most beneficial to the patient.

Townsend has been a physician for almost 20 years. She finished her medical residency in 2006 and started practicing in Orange with Dr. David Cox. She served patients both in the office and in the hospital. After a few years, she left the office and started working strictly in hospitals.

"Because of all of the red tape that's involved with insurance and everything I actually went in to do an only hospital medicine for several years," said Townsend. She moved to a hospital that was close to where her daughter was going to school.

"I've been with Doctor Townsend since she was pretty fresh out of medical school," said Patricia Musemeche of Orange. "I was one of her first patients and then she moved off."

"Then in 2020 the red tape extended to the hospital practice and I had been looking at this model of direct primary care, so in 2020 I opened up here," said Townsend. Her office is located at 2845 Texas Ave. Suite,100, under the bridge and to the left of Orange County Building Materials.

"The whole time she was gone I searched for a doctor," said Musemeche. "None of them were ever as good as she was, so I was glad to have her back."

" A lot of the expense that's involved with healthcare has to do with all the administrative burden that goes along with filing insurance, putting up roadblocks to actually prevent people from getting care," Townsend said. By not dealing with insurance, she does not need five to six employees just to deal with billing. Without all the overhead, she doesn't have to see as many patients. She operates with just herself and her nurse.

"The care that we provide is not really expensive. It's not thousands of dollars like a surgical procedure," said Townsend. "Primary care can be done better outside of the insurance system altogether. Rather than me filing claims on an insurance plan, patients sign up to be members of the practice and they pay a predictable monthly fee that covers everything that I do here in the office."

"She told me she was going to start this practice where she doesn't take insurance," said Musemeche. She was fine with that. "I have insurance, but I trust her 100%. She's always been very good. She listens to you; She sits down with you. She takes time with you. It's not all about the 'I gotta get to the next patient.' She takes her time and listens. She explains things well."

Musemeche also believes Townsend saved her son's life. He was taken to St. Elizabeth's emergency room. They diagnosed him with kidney stones, prescribed some meds and sent him home. A few days later, there was no improvement. They returned to the ER. This time they said it was a stomach bug.

"Two weeks went by and I said that's it, we're gonna go see Dr. Townsend, so we went and saw Amy," Musemeche said. Townsend looked over the medical records from the emergency rooms and she said it was ulcers. "She gave him two pills and three days later he was better. I was scared my son was gonna die. He looked horrible. He's super thin already. They misdiagnosed it twice."

Several of Townsend's patients have regular insurance coverage, though they choose to use her as their primary care physician.

"A lot of people assume that it would be something that would be really pricey or expensive. It's really not," said Townsend. "The monthly membership fee is based off of age so our lowest tier of 18 to 40 is $50.00 a month, 41 to 65 is $75.00 a month and then 65 and over is $100 a month." She said the membership covers office procedures such as EKGs, skin biopsies, and joint injections.

"I usually schedule most patients between 30 minutes and an hour for each visit. Because I don't have to have the expense of all the office staff to file insurance, I don't have to see 30,40,50 patients in a day," said Townsend. "Most fees for service practices are having to see that many just to pay their staff and keep their doors open, but not filing insurance, charging a reasonable fee that most people can afford allows me to make a living and provide really good comprehensive care for people. It's just a better way to do it."

She also offers a corporate plan for small businesses. Many frequently can't afford to offer insurance for their employees.

Michael Laws is one of those employers. He was standing outside. in shorts, in freezing weather, in Australia, talking about Dr. Townsend during a phone interview, while waiting for a few friends to show up for breakfast. That's how committed he is to her way of doctoring. He took time out from a family vacation so he could praise her.

Laws said he doesn't remember how he found out about her, but he went to her when he thought he had Parkinson's disease. Every time he went to the doctor, he was dissatisfied that he never got face time with the doctors and if he did, it was only a couple of minutes and another pill. Usually, he was passed off to the nurse practitioner. He was taking 14 prescriptions when he went to Townsend. She discovered a couple of his medications were reacting and causing the shaking. He was so impressed with her level of care that he bought memberships for his 20-25 employees even though he also supplied them with a high option Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance policy.

"She really does very deep research into medications. Most doctors, they get their education from the drug reps that show up and the (nurse) practitioners too, practitioners are less educated than doctors, especially in biology and physiology," said Laws. "Almost all doctors say once you're on these medications, you're on for life. We're down from like 14 medications. I'm now on four and have lost 110 lbs."

Al Judice also offers membership to his employees.

"It's kind of weird when you go in there because there's not a waiting room full of people." Judice said it would just be you and 'Miss Pam, Townsend's nurse, up front and within two to three minutes, you would be in the back having your vitals taken. He laughed about almost feeling short changed when he visits Townsend because it goes so smoothly. "Going to the doctor is always like an all day fiasco of ridiculousness you know and it's weird. I got my money's worth."

"One of the big things is," said Laws, "I was very motivated to improve my health. She has service and healthcare so extraordinary... I remember the first time she touched me, touched my ankles, touched my knees. I don't remember the last time a doctor touched me."

"You can't call her direct on the weekend or you call the office, but you can message the teledoc and she'll respond on a weekend," said Judice. "It's like having your own personal doctor 24 hours a day and you don't have to wait."

"She was a very high paid physician in a hospital system," said Laws. "She got so disgusted by the level of care and how much influence insurance had that she wasn't able to give the care that people needed. It's the purest medical care I've ever had by a long stretch and she did the same for my staff. I was very impressed with her."

"I would love to see every doctor possible get into this model because I think it gets people off of that sick hamster wheel and actually gets people to where they're healthy and better," said Townsend. "It brings the focus back to that doctor-patient relationship. When we go to medical school that's what we want to do. I didn't go to medical school to justify every single thing that I do to an insurance company or the government or anything like that. I went to medical school because I wanted to take care of patients. I don't think that companies and the government should be forcing their will on the patient."

Currently Townsend has about 400 patients. She will likely cap her practice around 500-600 patients, though she said she would like to bring another physician in when she gets close to that number. She mentioned she would like to have a pediatrician added to her practice.

"Everyone just loves working with them," said Laws.

"I know other doctors that they love what they do but they're in like this this high-speed mill like they have to work on volume with insurance to make any money," said Judice. "They have to double book and triple book. With Amy's business model, she doesn't. It's amazing. I feel like you have somebody actually taking care of you again not looking at their watch waiting to get to the next appointment because they got **** to do."

"She cares about her patients. She doesn't care about the insurance. She's worried about how to get us better. She's just a very wonderful person and a great doctor," said Musemeche. "I'll never have another doctor, ever."

Amy Townsend MD: a different type of practice

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