No Insurances

For much of her career as a practicing cardiologist, Dr. Anne-Marie Feyrer-Melk essentially kept one hand on the doorknob during patient visits. She had to. Falling fee reimbursements from insurance companies had forced her to reduce patient appointment times from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. It was a matter of livelihood.

“When we were looking at having to reduce what’s called the patient encounter down to eight minutes, I threw up my hands,” says the Scottsdale doctor, playfully known to her patients as Dr. AM/FM.