Maryland online exchange problems cloud doctor's vision for healthcare

Peter Beilenson dreamed of bright, affordable health-care centers in working-class neighborhoods, staffed with doctors paid a flat salary — rather than per patient — and lifestyle coaches encouraging healthier living. Tiny waiting rooms would reinforce the message that all patients would be seen quickly. A human would always answer the phone. Specialists could immediately be consulted by videoconference. And there would be free yoga. Such common-sense approaches, Beilenson believes, will eventually drive down health-care costs. Buried in President Obama's newly enacted Affordable Care Act, he found a way to test that theory.