While some practices have been experimenting with a barter system for treatment, traded for odd job services, providers are offering traded health services in back adjustments, blood work, dental filling, and eye exams at a New York festival, reports The Wall Street Journal. At O+ Festival, named after the blood type, patients trade their music or artwork, such as a hospital mural, in exchange for the medical care.
"Artists should not be falling through the cracks," said Dr. Art Chandler III, director of hospitalists at Columbia Memorial Hospital and overseer of the festival's clinic. "They contribute so much to what makes a community worth living in." Article (sub. req.)