Concierge medicine describes a primary relationship between the patient and their doctor. By direct relationship, we mean that your physician is paid in cash directly from the patient to acquire medical services. This direct relationship removes the insurance company through the healthcare debate regarding such a patient can and cannot have as part of their treatment regime. If the client is prepared to pay for a program of treatment then the doctor will deliver it.
The concept is incredibly new, however, it has become code in reaction to increasing encroachment upon the physician-patient relationship from external parties. The primary culprit is the insurance coverage companies, who must approve treatment before it can be delivered. This curtails and restricts the ability of a doctor to supply appropriate medical care for their patients, despite the sanctity in the patient-doctor relationship.
Concierge Prescription Medication
Concierge prescription medication is delineated by a recurring fee or retainer paid to the doctor by the patient. It may also be known as membership medicine, retainer-based medicine, cash-only practice, direct primary medicine, or even several other adjectively based names. There are between 800 and 5,000 doctors who may have established their practices with this enterprise model, the precise numbers are unknown because no-one is checking such practices. This is a very novel approach to the delivery of healthcare inside the U.S.
Concierge doctors differ inside the degree of services they supply as well as for what services are covered from the retainer. Typically, concierge doctors will look after fewer patients than is usual in conventional medical practice. How many patients are taken care of with a concierge doctor is dependent upon the individual practice, nonetheless it may be under a hundred patients through to 1,000 – this compares very favorably which has a variety of between three to four thousand patients in conventional practice. Fees vary from as few as $600 through to $5,000 per year, though precisely what is contained in those fees will change enormously and further fees will probably be levied depending on the higher-level treatment course and extra services required.
Concierge Practices
A radical approach from some concierge practices is just not to accept any insurance payment whatsoever. This drives on the heart from the patient-doctor relationship in that no vacation should be able to influence the degree of patient care delivered for the patient by your physician. Such doctors’ practices are generally known as direct primary care practices and sometimes as cash-only practices. By keeping insurance companies out of the practice, doctors can easily minimize overheads and reduce the administrative burden this means cheaper healthcare grows more accessible. Some concierge practices do take insurance payments, including some which take Medicare, nevertheless, the real factor which differentiates concierge practices is the imposition of a discrete fee by your physician directly to the patient.
Most concierge medical practices are normally found around the East and West coasts, though as we previously noted, the number of doctors are practicing by using this healthcare enterprise model is unknown at the moment. As the practice increases in popularity, it will become more apparent, but for now, if you’d like a medical expert being focusing only on how well to care for you without pressure from insurance agencies, this could be the purely available health care service available inside the U.S.
