Doctors Adapting A Concierge Business Model

I just got a call (4.00 / 1)

From Business Alabma a few days ago about this. Apparently a blog post I did 2 years ago was the only negative thing they could find on concierge medicine! It is a disaster and unethical practice. But we will see more of it until we get single payer.

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by: DrAbston @ Fri Oct 26, 2012 at 13:28:54 PM UTC

$1,650 (0.00 / 0)

My doc of 20 years just announced his new business plan: charge $1,650 a year just to see him.  That was right after a glowing physical exam, which is about the only time I ever see him.

If you are sick, you still have to pay all the normal fees.  Most insurance programs will not cover the $1,650 "retainer". 

He's going to drop 2,600 patients and keep 600.  There are six other Huntsville docs already in the MDVIP program, now owned by Proctor & Gamble.  

Do the math: 7 primary care doctors dropping 2,500 patients each - that's 17,500 patients looking for new primary care in Huntsville alone.

If those 600 keepers are anything like me, my doc will only have to work 3 months a year.

 

 

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by: runningwithscissors @ Fri Oct 26, 2012 at 14:40:08 PM UTC

An alternative (0.00 / 0)

See a licensed nurse practicioner.  A step below an MD but useful for the "garden variety" of ailments. 

I pay my LNP $35 per visit.  Period. 

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by: Doggone @ Fri Oct 26, 2012 at 14:44:55 PM UTC

In Alabama, NP's (0.00 / 0)

Must work under collaborative arrangement with MD. So if too many MD's go concierge and don't continue NP supervision, that won't be an option. Unless they can get independent practice rights as they ought to have

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by: DrAbston @ Fri Oct 26, 2012 at 18:19:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yup. (0.00 / 0)

My NP works collaboratively with an MD, whom I've never met.  But I really don't worry too much about it. 

He also runs a soul food restaurant.  I can get a meal and a Rx at the same time!

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by: Doggone @ Fri Oct 26, 2012 at 18:55:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Should have said (4.00 / 1)

I really didn't mean to use "adapting" in the headline. I meant to use "adopting", but all of the other thoughts remain the same. I really felt let down by my former doctor. He was never going to get rich off of me, but neither was I going to take up a lot of his time. From the very first I figured that he looked at a new airplane in his future that he didn't have to share with partners!

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by: tommy harper @ Fri Oct 26, 2012 at 23:45:31 PM UTC

Concierge Medicine (0.00 / 0)

Is a violation of professional ethics. Your money, through Medicare, paid for his entire residency training. Without his fellow taxpayers, he would not be a doctor. So he owes it to at least accept insurance and most especially Medicare, as a form of repayment. I am ashamed to call these folks colleagues, so I will not-- they are no longer professionals but serve only Mammon.

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by: DrAbston @ Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 04:05:15 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Plus, it's probably more than the residency year. (0.00 / 0)

I'm sure that medical schools are heavily subsidized from Federal sources in varous ways such as construction grants, research contracts, student loans and a whole lot else.

And the FDA, NIH and other agencies do the heavy stuff that makes modern medicine possible.  Hey, even the military gets into the act.  They have a medical school of their own in Bethesda MD!

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by: Doggone @ Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 10:27:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Residency (0.00 / 0)

Is three years (first year called internship but it is part of residency). For 4 years of med school, tuition paid by student, although substantial, is a fraction of the overall education cost, usually footed by the state in supporting the school budget, unless he went to a fully private school. Same for college 4 years. So all 11 years plus (unless went private) childhood education funded by taxpayers!

It would be a fraction of our national medical expense to just pay the whole medical education outright, since we already pay most. But that should come with a career long obligation to accept all public and military insurance.

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by: DrAbston @ Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 12:10:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I've heard from numerous sources (0.00 / 0)

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...."      Hosea 4:6

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by: driq @ Tue Oct 30, 2012 at 12:23:53 PM UTC