What is concierge medicine?
Concierge medicine is a buzz phrase you might hear on the news these days, but it really boils down to the traditional hometown doctor approach. Through concierge services, you get a doctor who is on-call 24 hours a day. That means no more waiting for callbacks or dealing with a service. It’s like having your own private physician on speed-dial.
Patients who opt for concierge service pay a reasonable monthly fee to get personalized attention. This fee allows the doctor to accept fewer patients and be more available.
Concierge services include:
- Call or text the doctor directly on his cell phone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- House calls to home/office/hotel
- Prioritized appointments for concierge members
- Direct communication with your doctor (eliminating interaction with front staff)
- Private valet parking/entrance for confidentiality
- Unlimited office appointments
- No copays, no insurance hassles, transparent pricing
- Chronic care management
- Ongoing preventative and wellness visits
- Unlimited telemedicine appointments
- In-office diagnostics and treatments: EKG, nebulizer, fingerstick glucose, etc
- In-office testing: Urinalysis, urine pregnancy, strep throat, flu, mono, etc
- Minor procedures: Laceration repair, I&D abscess, etc
How is that different from a primary care physician?
A primary care physician simply manages your health care needs. There are no special perks offered to patients. For example, if you call your primary care physician for an appointment, you might wait weeks to be seen. When you finally do see your primary care physician, they usually don’t have more than fifteen minutes to spend with you.
A concierge doctor is your personal primary care physician. They work for you and not for the health insurance companies. They have a smaller patient panel than a traditional physician and, thus, they have much more time to really listen and address all of your healthcare needs.
Does the insurance company pay for concierge medicine?
Your insurance will not cover the subscription fee for concierge services. That would be an out of pocket expense. Think of it as paying a little extra for concierge service at a hotel.
* Please note we are not a healthcare insurance company nor do we provide healthcare insurance. We recommend all patients maintain their own healthcare insurance for uncovered costs, emergencies, and hospitalizations.