Have you heard of this? I heard about the concept several years ago, presented kind of as "how the other half lives".
It is a program in which a private physician provides care to patients who pay a "membership fee". The doctor limits the number of "members" so those patients can get in to see the doctor quickly, get plenty of face time with the doctor, and can reach the doctor 24/7 via a special cell phone number to ask questions etc.
Last week I went to a presentation put on by my doctor and a marketing company because she is adopting this program for part of her practice. In the original model, the doctor would only see member patients (typically 500-700 max) making for a pretty small practice. My doctor has 1700 active patients (I think active means having visited the doc at least once in the past 2 years) and she didn't want to just drop 1000+ patients so she found an alternative plan that allows her to have a partial concierge practice of 150 patients, and the remainder as traditional patients.
She will set aside 2 hrs per day for the concierge patients. They will have 30 minutes alloted for each visit, unless its a complete "executive" physical exam which would last for 1 hr or more. The remainder of the day (about 5 hrs) will be for the traditional patients. The plan to accommodate everybody is to stop taking new patients and then the practice will start shrinking due to attrition as patients pass away, move away, leave because of insurance requirements, etc (she didn't mention leave in disgust because it takes weeks to get an appointment!).
The cost for this high level of service? $1800 per year!! That includes all charges related to the executive physical and its expanded lab tests. Any other visits are billed to insurance/self pay as usual. According to the program coordinator(?) these plans are often much more expensive.
Will this fly? It might, if she has enough well-heeled patients. I can see it as a plus for people like attorneys for whom time is a lot of money so they'd rather pay than wait to be seen. But in this economy, that's a lot of money to pay for convenience. This doctor is great, when she's with you she's really there listening and will give you however much time you need (unlike some doctors who seem to always be ready to bolt out the door!) so her schedule is usually way behind and waiting an hour past the appt time is common. And it can be hard to get seen on short notice.
I won't be joining the concierge program. Even if I had a spare $1800 laying around I doubt I would join, it just seems like too much money for how often I need to see her in my present state of health which is typically 2-3 times per year including a physical. (if I had a condition that required frequent monitoring I might view it differently). I just hope that it doesn't become a big problem getting an appointment if I do develop an illness or problem. I will see her in about 6 weeks for my annual physical and I'll be curious to know if she filled all 150 spaces and has a waiting list, or if its not as popular as she had anticipated.
Are you familiar with this type of program? What do you think of the concept? Do you know anyone who belongs to a concierge practice? If money was not a great issue would you join one?
I know that our Canadian friends participate in a different system of health care delivery, but do plans like this exist there for people who want a more personal and easily accessible type of health care?
