Financial Benefits of Concierge Medicine
For many, the annual membership cost associated with a Concierge Practice can seem daunting. Younger patients tell me frequently that they are too young and healthy to need a Concierge doctor. Older patients with multiple medical problems also may not want to join because they may not think that the extra time and care is worth the price. I would like to spend a little time today highlighting how much time and money you can save in the short term and long term under the care of a Concierge Physician.
To start with, let’s explain the reason for the annual membership fee. As most patients seeing traditional insurance-only PCPs can attest, your doctor does not have much time to see you and listen to all of your concerns. Insurance reimbursements continue to decline, forcing physicians to see more and more patients to keep a viable practice. The membership fee allows a Concierge Doctor to drastically reduce the number of patients that he sees, in my case 90% less than a traditional practice. This not only gets you extra time to talk to me, but also gets me extra time to care for you and coordinate your care. In my practice, my patients regularly text me when an issue comes up. I usually call back and we discuss the issue and address the problem there or schedule an appointment to see you the same day or the next day. The extra time also allows me to research your conditions, talk to your specialists, pay closer attention to your labs and even read your Xrays and CTs myself, without having to wait 2 days sometimes for the radiologist’s read to come back. In most traditional PCP practices, it is very diAicult to get an urgent appointment closer than a few weeks out so most patients end up going to urgent cares and ERs, leading to more bills and copays. Additionally, the extra time allows me to tailor your medical plan to your individual needs, which leads to longer and healthier lives. Chronic illnesses are expensive and end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars between hospital bills, out of pocket costs, copays, drug costs, Inpatient Rehab and Skilled Nursing Facility stays, etc.
To summarize, for less than $300 per month, you can have your primary doctor on call. If you are older with multiple medical conditions, I spent the last 10 years as a Hospitalist at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and then as an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern. As a Board-Certified Internal Medicine physician with hospital experience, I am uniquely able to manage your multiple medical problems without needing to send you to a specialist for every issue related to those chronic conditions. And for any younger patients, the time to start is now so that your doctor can talk to you and find out all of your family history and prevent the development of those chronic illnesses that can be so disabling later in life. Call now to make your free initial consultation.
