Direct Primary Care of the Carolinas

08/10/2024

PLEASE TAKE the TIME to READ THIS POST!

Recently my physician-mentor and role model died in Asheville, NC at the age of 87. Olson Huff was a well-respected Charlotte pediatrician and the best friend of my father. In high school I frequently babysat his 3 sons. Many times during high school and college I would “shadow” him by seeing patients with him and then discussing how he treated them. One day we saw a young child who he diagnosed with meningitis; he performed the spinal tap right there in his office and then we walked across the street to the hospital to admit the child; I will never forget that day. He always stressed the importance of evaluating the development of each pediatric patient and not just doing the physical exam.

Midway through his career, he changed his focus to Developmental Pediatrics; he moved to Asheville to become Director of the Toms Center, a facility devoted to the treatment of pediatric developmental and behavioral health issues and learning disorders, including anxiety, autism and depression. He received numerous awards and accolades during his life as a national thought leader for Pediatric Developmental Disorders.

Dr Huff was the wisest man I ever knew. Even after 37 years doing Family Medicine, I strive to emulate Dr Huff in my patient encounters. Whenever I perform a well-child exam, I am inspired by Dr Huff , making sure to take the time to assess the child’s development as he taught me to do.

His funeral will not be for 2 months to allow his friends and colleagues from all over the country to attend.

I urge you to read his obituary below (edited for length) ;it is a Window into his amazing life. I also included a link to an amazing eulogy by the physician who took his place at the Center which now bears Olson’s name. https://dogwoodhealthtrust.org/honoring-dr-olson-huff/

Olson Huff (August 6, 1936 – July 24, 2024 (age 87)
Olson Huff, beloved pediatrician, advocate, and friend to all children, died peacefully at
home on July 24, 2024. He was almost 88. His family moved from the coal hills of Eastern Kentucky to a farm in Salem, Indiana
when Olson was 11. He served 5 years active duty in the Air Force as a Flight Surgeon. He and Marylyn were married in 1963 before shipping out to Takhli AFB, Thailand at the buildup to the Vietnam War. There he was exposed to Agent Orange, which led to his heart disease fifty-five years later.
During his 14 years of clinical practice in Charlotte, he completed a Fellowship in
Developmental Disabilities from UNC-Chapel Hill. He moved to Asheville in 1982 to concentrate on Developmental Pediatrics, founding the team-based Olson Huff Center for Child Development and became the first Medical Director of the Ruth & Billy Graham Children’s Health Center at Mission Hospital.

Olson was a founding board member of the NC Partnership for Children (Smart Start) and served on numerous boards. He was always surprised when given another award, among which were an Honorary Doctor of Science from UNC Asheville, the NC Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame
The American Academy of Pediatrics recognized his work as the Chair of the Academy’s Federal Affairs Committee, by stating, “With gratitude for your compassion, dedication, and tireless advocacy on behalf of our nation’s children. You dare us to run when others would
simply walk.”
To encourage children and their families to get unplugged and to explore the outdoors,
he helped the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation start “Kids in Parks”. There are now Track Trails in local, state, and national parks across the country. A visionary who
changed systems, he never lost sight of the individual child and their family.
Olson was a man of many interests and talents: classical music, reading a wide
range of books, walking his Black Mountain neighborhood with his dogs, bee keeping, and digging in the dirt. As a lifelong runner, he won more 5K races as he got older with fewer competitors!
A wonderful storyteller and writer, he published two books, The Window of Childhood:
Glimpses of Wonder and Courage and Why the Clown Wouldn’t Smile. He co-edited
and contributed to the award- winning Caring for Your Newborn and The Triumphant
Child: Two to Four Year Olds. For several years he published the magazine and
website, the Sixty-Second Parent.
He participated in medical mission trips to Malawi and to the Dominican Republic.

A verse that guided him was Micah 6:8 NRSV. “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Olson demonstrated the strength of gentleness, the power gained from empowering
others, and persistence that resulted in good outcomes for the wellbeing of children. He
was a loving father, who, in despite a busy medical practice, always made time for
his boys and later delighted in his grandchildren. He and his wife were partners
who supported each other in all they did.
In lieu of flowers, one can make a donation to the George Masa Foundation, 71 Culvern Street, Asheville, NC 28804. A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, October 26 at 11:00 am in Anderson Auditorium in Montreat, NC.

07/04/2024

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE of INDEPENDENCE DAY!
PLEASE read these 2 articles.
I believe that we are being called at the present time to join with these PATRIOTS to be bold for our country!

The U.S Declaration of Independence is emblazoned with the words "In Congress, July 4, 1776" at the top, and displays the signatures of John Hancock and other founding fathers at the bottom. These historic events, central to the founding of the United States of America, deserve to be understood in detail.

In May of 1775, the Second Continental Congress was seated in the Assembly Hall of the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Weeks earlier, hostilities had broken out between the British and colonial militias at Lexington, Massachusetts, and Concord, Massachusetts. King George III had not replied to the petition sent the prior October by the First Continental Congress, stating the colonists’ grievances. In August of 1775, the King declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. The Second Congress swiftly formed a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. By the middle of 1776, public sentiment in numerous colonies appeared to have turned decisively in favor of independence from Great Britain.

Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia delegate acting on behalf of the Virginia Convention, proposed to Congress a resolution on independence on June 7, 1776. The first of three provisions in this resolution read as follows: "Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Other town and colonial assemblies were issuing similar pleas.

Such a profound action demanded careful deliberation. On June 11, Congress put off a vote on Lee’s resolution. It appointed a five-member committee to draft a public statement that would explain the reasons for declaring independence should Congress so decide. John Adams of Massachusetts and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania were on the committee, along with Robert R. Livingston of New York and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. The fifth member, Virginian Thomas Jefferson, was chosen to be the document’s principal drafter. After incorporating changes suggested by Adams and Franklin, the committee submitted its draft declaration to the Congress on June 28. This is the scene depicted in John Trumbull’s famous painting that now hangs in the Capitol Building rotunda in Washington, D.C.

Congress debated Lee’s resolution on Monday, July 1. Nine colonies were prepared to vote in favor. The South Carolina and Pennsylvania delegations were opposed; the two Delaware delegates were deadlocked; and the New York delegates were unable to vote, since their instructions permitted them only to pursue reconciliation with the king. Overnight, however, the situation changed. On July 2, Caesar Rodney rode in to Philadelphia from Dover, Delaware, bringing a tie-breaking vote for Delaware in favor of independence. South Carolina shifted its position in favor, and the Pennsylvania opponents chose to stay away. When the vote was called on July 2, the Lee resolution passed by a vote of 12 to zero, with New York abstaining. After this historic decision, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, predicting that future Americans would commemorate their independence with a festival every second of July.

The full Congress then began debating the declaration, making substantial editorial revisions but leaving mostly untouched the soaring rhetoric of Jefferson’s opening paragraphs. On July 4, Congress approved the final draft. It ordered the statement printed and distributed to the colonial assemblies and divisions of the Continental Army.

That evening, the printer John Dunlap prepared a large broadside with the complete text of “a Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled.” It is believed that about 200 copies of the Dunlap broadside were published on July 5; about 25 still exist today. The document was read aloud in front of the statehouse in Philadelphia on July 8.
Over the next few weeks it was reprinted in newspapers up and down the Atlantic seaboard.

On July 9, New York reversed its earlier instructions to its delegates, permitting them to join the other colonies favoring a formal break with Britain. A few days later, the news reached Philadelphia that the colonies were now unanimously for independence. On July 19, Congress ordered an official copy of the declaration to be “fairly engrossed”—written out in large handwriting—on parchment for the delegates to sign. This job went to Timothy Matlack, an assistant to the congressional secretary, Charles Thomson.

On August 2, 1776, the Congress members affixed their signatures to this parchment inside the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall. The first and largest signature was that of the president of the Congress, John Hancock of Massachusetts. The mood in the room was far from jubilant. All were aware of the magnitude of what they were undertaking—an act of high treason against the British Crown that could cost each man his life. Recalling the day many years later, Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Rush wrote of the “pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress,” to sign “what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants.”

Not every man who had been present in Congress on July 4 signed the declaration on August 2. Historians believe seven of the 56 signatures on the document were placed there later. Two prominent delegates passed up the chance to sign: John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York. The names of the signers were made public in January of 1777, when they were printed on another broadside edition of the Declaration published in Baltimore, Maryland.

Learn about the historical significance of the Declaration of Independence and its impact on global events and cultures. Discover key figures and facts related to this important event and access educational resources to deepen your knowledge.

06/20/2024

Here is a good article about keeping your skin as young-looking as possible. Sorry about the advertisement at the end.
From Dr William Katibah and Direct Primary Care of the Carolinas

Certain habits have a sneaky way of making your skin look older than it should. Learn which ones are the worst offenders and what to do instead.

05/15/2024

Today I am in Raleigh attending the North Carolina Convention of States Rally. Convention of states is an nation-wide organization that seeks to reclaim our country from the increasingly unconstitutional control of the people by the federal government. The method to do this is by discussing and ratifying new amendments to the US Constitution which is allowed in Article V of the Constitution. We seek to limit the control of the federal government by passing amendments to: 1) set term limits for our senators and representatives, 2) Impose fiscal restraints by mandating a balanced federal budget every year, and 3) restrain the power and the jurisdiction of the federal government.
The NC Senate must pass this resolution by the end of the 2024 short legislative session (June 30) or the passage by the NC House will expire and we will have to start over. This is not a partisan effort; it is an attempt to improve our country - the United States of America.
If you'd like to learn more you can watch the live stream of the rally from 11:00 a.m. To 1:00 p.m.. Go the the page Convention of States

04/17/2024

Thank you, Tom, for expressing these lessons learned in your usual eloquent style!

Growing up, my mother used a rather simple disciplinary technique. When my sister and I misbehaved, she would calmly tell us to go “sit in the bad spot,” a designated place on the kitchen floor. It…

12/20/2023

Dear DPCC and Regenesis Laser & Skin Care patients, all of us decorated Gingerbread houses last evening. There were no injuries, no food fight broke out and a good time was had by all. Now it is your time to participate: please the photos and vote for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices.
We will reveal the winner next week after Christmas. Thank you for your participation!

03/15/2021

This is a video made by various DPC docs from across the country. All of us quit chasing the carrot of "security through slavery" in a hospital-owned insurance. Now we love what we do. Enjoy!

This video concluded my conference-ending motivational Direct Primary Care lecture, which included a reading of the children's book "The Carrot Seed" and fea...

03/04/2021

Dr Lee Gross in Florida is one of the national leaders in Direct Primary Care. But you don't have to go to Florida to have a personal, accessible doctor. Check out www.DirectPCC.com in Charlotte, NC!

"Direct primary care is about as close to a free market in healthcare as you've ever seen in our country," says Dr. Lee Gross.------------------Subscribe to ...

10/02/2020

In this video, Rep. Dan Crenshaw from Texas promotes Direct Primary Care as a crucial strategy to save the American healthcare system. He is working in Congress to allow DPC to flourish. But why wait until Congress moves? DPC is available now, in Charlotte, at Direct Primary Care of the Carolinas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dUvJRHBfzc&feature=youtu.be

09/23/2020

The Intelligencer

Opinion
Guest Opinion: Hyperinflation thrives in the shadows of American healthcare

By Marion Mass
Posted Mar 5, 2020 at 5:16 AM

The first installment in this series mentioned “the shadows” of healthcare, where the general public rarely looks because it takes too much time to pe*****te the darkness and understand how this complex sector of the economy works.

A friend told the story of a recent brush with “the shadows” at his local pharmacy.

His out-of-pocket cost had risen for a longstanding prescription covered by Medicare. Curious, he asked to see how much of the cost Medicare covered. He was startled to see how much “pain” he and his fellow taxpayers were being “spared.”

That experience could be replicated endlessly across America.

The money we pour into the complex, third-party payer machinery built by the government and the insurance industry is the price we pay for our beloved painkiller — the “opiate of the masses,” to borrow a phrase from Karl Marx. The pain of paying outrageous prices is dulled, usually just enough so that we don’t get too worked up.

We operate under a system of price opacity. The prices being charged are not transparent, not visible to us. We don’t know how those prices are set or where the money goes. We don’t really care.

That’s what opacity does. As a narcotic, price opacity is a high-performance wonder.

But there’s an appalling cost to not knowing the cost.

My friend’s surprise at the pharmacy is what Americans would experience routinely by looking into hospital bills, bills for visits to clinics, and bills for diagnostic testing of all kinds.

Did you hear the one about the $25,000 test for strep throat? How about the $59,490 ultrasound? At least those two monstrosities were caught.

Did you know that outrageous charges are paid routinely by computerized systems and without benefit of human review?

We’ve created a devil’s playground.

What if we could re-establish a transparent, competitive marketplace, consistent with American principles of choice (not European principles of government control), a marketplace that would not only set prices organically and rationally, but drive them down — way down?

Would freedom from an “opaque” system save money — money now disappearing into the great maw of third-party profiteers and supporting the huge administrative, regulation-spawned overhead discussed in our last article?

Would we free up money for research to find the cure for cancer, to resolve the opioid crisis, and to meet the needs of the underserved, the uninsured, and those with pre-existing conditions?

Now do you understand the big driver of healthcare’s hyperinflation over the last several decades? Why healthcare insurance premiums have become outrageous? Why the cost of healthcare is the top issue for American households? Why the snake oil salesmen of Medicare-for-All can find a gullible audience?

It is we who have remained anesthetized and “in the dark,” while the players who count on our darkened stupor have profited wildly, although adding nothing of value. By preferring that darkened stupor, we’ve allowed private interests and the hyper-lobbied political class to turn American healthcare into an overpriced nightmare.

Is anyone trying to let more light into this opaque system?

Yes. Certain executive orders are first steps in that process.

Are there powerful interests who lobby against the light?

You bet.

Call your legislator with this message: “In healthcare, we want transparency in pricing to replace opacity. Get off your duff and make it happen.”

Marion Mass, M.D.; Bucks County pediatrician; co-founder, Practicing Physicians of America. Member of this paper’s editorial board. No conflicts of interest.

07/02/2020

Interesting graph from one of my DPC colleagues: Cases going up but deaths are going down. More people are being tested, especially younger people being tested. I have noticed a lot of young adults are being tested before being with family (including grandparents) during summer vacations. Be very careful when watching news - data can be twisted or selectively chosen to prove almost any point that one wants to make.