For years, Dr. Mok has focused on reducing risks, reducing costs and reducing complications. From the initial days of doing mostly cosmetic procedures to Allure’ s current emphasis on regenerative medicine( for example, venous ablation for ugly legs and stem cell treatments for MS and arthritic joints), Dr. Mok has created a culture of eliminating waste.“ Frequently, there’ s a less expensive, more effective, safer way to treat disease,” he points out.“ Traditional medicine means using drugs and procedures to manage disease. That’ s what healthcare is now. Regenerative medicine is defined as using drugs and procedures to restore or replace organs and tissues to fix the problem. That’ s what we’ re doing.”
Case in point: venous ablation. When a patient is suffering from varicose veins, the conventional treatment is an Unna boot, a technique developed in the 1890s. Because the boot does not address the problematic vein itself, however, patients often go on to develop ulcerations and find themselves in long-term wound care. According to a 2017 study in the Journal of Medical Economics, the US spends about $ 16 billion annually on wound care for venous ulceration, with the average patient incurring a cost of $ 96,000 over four years. In comparison, immediately treating problematic veins with venous ablation costs $ 5,000 and fixes the problem, avoiding wound care and its associated costs and health impacts. Yet although the FDA approved ablation procedures in the early 2000s, many insurers still insist on patients undergoing wound care before they’ ll treat them with ablations. Ablations are not even offered in many areas of the country.
Enter Allure. In addition to seven locations in Michigan, Allure has expanded into South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. With possible plans to open a clinic in Minnesota. And that’ s just the beginning.“ We’ re focusing on areas that are going to save healthcare,” says Dr. Mok.“ Even though we’ re well-known in the cosmetic world, we’ re not going into other cities to do facelifts or breast surgery— we’ re going there to do regenerative medicine and save healthcare. That’ s our goal and our purpose. Once we set up the vein practice, we bring in other healthcare-saving treatments, like treating arthritic knees with stem cells rather than doing knee replacements and providing hormone replacement therapy to address diabetes, obesity and breast cancer.”
When Allure acquires existing practices in other regions, the Michigan-based staff works with the local staff to shift the focus away from emphasizing“ pretty legs” to focusing on“ ugly legs.” Getting those patients to come in and be treated is what reduces healthcare costs, because then they don’ t wind up in long-term
( and mostly ineffective) wound care. That’ s the $ 10 billion answer. Dr. Mok has also convinced insurance companies to change their policies regarding venous ablations, and many doctors now refer their patients to Allure when they need treatment for venous ulcerations. All that effort has paid off— in Michigan, wound care costs are a little bit lower state-wide than they are in other states because Allure has been able to positively impact the region. Meanwhile, in Florida, doctors have convinced Medicare to drop Unna boot treatments in favor of ablations.
“ It takes time, but you can impact healthcare,” says Dr. Mok.“ It comes down to challenging the status quo. I know how to eliminate steps that don’ t create value. That means my complication rate is lower, my success rate is higher and I have happier patients.” He now describes Allure as a“ culture company, a coaching company,” one that will continue to have an even greater impact on Metro Detroit and the US. A company that’ s focused on saving patients and saving healthcare.
“ Healthcare costs are staggering and growing at a rate of 5 % per year. That’ s not sustainable.”
- Dr. Charles Mok 27