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Concierge medicine is gaining popularity among both doctors and their patients.
Where do rock stars, professional athletes, actors or politicians go for their health care? Most likely a private doctor. While these types of high-profile patients have always had access to customized health care, this type of service is no longer just for the rich and famous. “Concierge Medicine,” also known as “direct care,” is really starting to gain popularity. It’s a relationship between a primary care physician and a patient where the patient pays a flat annual fee or retainer for specialized care and attention. As health insurance costs skyrocket for many, paying out of pocket has become a more viable option and these types of practices continue to grow. It’s something to be aware of as many of these physicians are forming relationships with their local ophthalmologists so that they have an eye doctor to refer their patients to if the need should arise.
Boutique Treatment
Executive Medicine of Texas, based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has seen growing success with its “concierge packages,” which start at $2,500 when added to a physical. It’s something that’s becoming popular nationwide as both doctors and their patients see a need for change.
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Dr. Walter Gaman and Dr. Mark Anderson
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One of the biggest differences with this boutique type of medicine is that the doctor spends a good part of their day with a patient during a physical in which a whole slew of tests are run. It’s not uncommon for the time with a patient to average around five hours. With Executive Medicine’s concierge packages, follow-up visits and phone access to medical staff 24/7 are also offered. In fact, the physician typically gives their patients a direct cell phone line and welcomes patients to call anytime. It’s a big difference from the typical doctor’s office where a patient is lucky to get 15 minutes’ of their doctor’s undivided attention.
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The idea for concierge medicine sprung out of both patient and doctor dissatisfaction, says Walter Gaman, MD, who co-owns Executive Medicine of Texas with Mark Anderson, MD. “In order just to cover their overhead and make a reasonable living, doctors were tied to seeing so many patients a day,” he says. “That put them on a treadmill of rushing from patient to patient. But it wasn’t just the patients who were unhappy. Doctors knew they couldn’t do the best job they were capable of when they were under a time constraint. The idea of concierge medicine was born out of that frustration.”
With concierge medicine, Gaman says the focus is on prevention. Gaman and Anderson do highly in depth physicals on their patients that include everything from lab testing, to hearing screening, cardiovascular stress testing, and more. A vision screening and color vision screening are also performed as part of the extensive overall physical. “It’s not uncommon for us to find patients with early cataracts,” reports Gaman. “If we find this type of thing, we’d refer them to an ophthalmologist.”
Of course this type of specialized treatment has also drawn a celebrity crowd. “We’ve had professional athletes and celebrities, but we also have a lot of CEOs and company executives,” says Anderson. “These are often people who have a very particular time schedule that they need to keep and we can accommodate that. Athletes also don’t want to be recognized in their home town for going to the doctor or there starts being all kinds of speculation as to what’s wrong with them.”
Worth the Cost
Concierge medicine does require more out of pocket cost. Testing done through the hospital would likely be covered by insurance, but the office visits to Executive Medicine and in-house testing would not. These types of services would require an out-of-pocket retainer. But that flat fee covers much of the services.
While a patient’s insurance doesn’t cover all of the care involved in Executive Medicine of Texas’ packages, the physicians say that patients feel it’s worth the cost. “Patients walk away feeling as though they got their money’s worth,” says Gaman. “We go into great detail and give them a road map to where their health is headed. And we offer them convenience. I had a patient call from the middle of China who needed medical advice. I also had a patient with Gout who needed a shot of Cortisone so I met him at the office at midnight and gave it to him there so he didn’t have to go to the ER.”
With this kind of individualized treatment, physicians who offer concierge type of services have to take a limited volume of patients. There’s only so much time in one day. Gaman says that concierge medicine is a return to traditional medicine—the way it used to be when you were on a first-name basis with your doctor. “I haven’t had to do a house call yet but if one of my concierge patients called and needed it, I would do that,” he says. “It’d be part of the service.”
On Executive Medicine’s website, they help patients put the price in perspective with a few figures. They note that $3,600 would be the cost of drinking a Venti Frappuccino ® each day for a year, while $1,700 would be the cost of a movie date night per weekend in a year. Considering these costs, they suggest that paying more out of pocket for concierge medicine makes sense since matters of health are so critical.
Anderson says that he’s certain ophthalmologists probably understand the frustration of having to see many patients in a day just to keep up with office expenses and overhead costs. While it’s more of a primary care issue right now, even many specialists are feeling the weight of busy offices. Anderson says that eyecare practice owners should consider forming relationships with concierge practices in their area. “We have many relationships with area specialists,” he says. “That way if one of our patients needs to see someone, like an ophthalmologist, we can refer them. Generally these are patients that have good benefits and well-paying plans. If you can create a relationship with a physician’s office that offers concierge medicine, it may benefit you as well.”
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