First off, consider yourself blessed if you’re part of the growing community of practicing doctors who left the insurance nightmares behind. You’re going to have a lot on your plate now, even at less than maximum patient capacity. You’ve got to get your head around new billing processes, new responsibilities (like answering the phone and scheduling your own appointments) and most likely, a new office. However, you’ll want to prepare yourself for some serious patient expansion around the 18-month mark.
June 14, 2013
June 14, 2013
Rose Egge Suggests 3 Ways To Get More Face Time With Your Doctor
You know the drill already. Healthcare costs are forcing doctors to see obscene numbers of patients just to keep their lights on, causing many doctors to spend less time with their patients. Rose Egge contributed a reassuring article to Concierge Medicine Today (CMT) going over techniques that some Seattle physicians are adopting to counter this trend. And one turns out just to be concierge medicine. It figures we’d make a list of this nature.
June 14, 2013
Writer Contributes Op/Ed Piece To Heal Overwhelmed Physicians
Jerry Avorn is a professor of medicine at Harvard and an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He’s also the author of “Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs.” He wrote an eccentric and slightly polemic opinion piece in The New York Times that connects Marie-Henri Beyle, pseudonym Stendahl, with the current state of primary care treatment techniques.
June 13, 2013
How much does it cost to run a concierge medical practice?
Running a concierge medical practice costs a lot less than you’d expect. While a variety of factors (location, space size, clientele, etc.) might push your overhead up or down, we’ve got our head around some numbers that will provide a great benchmark for transitioning concierge medical doctors.
June 13, 2013
Fox News Says Concierge Medicine Is Now For The “Not-so-Rich”
We came across an article from Fox Business and thought we’d share a laugh. From a leading news source, you’d think they’d have found a more comely way of saying middleclass, working Americans. Something else stood out to us also. They asked, “Even at the lower prices, is it worth it?” Then continued to say:
“[Some] in the industry say the moniker ‘concierge medicine’ no longer fits, as the concept becomes more accessible and mainstream.” What do you think? Should we try to rebrand our sane version of healthcare to something else? Or do we ride the wave that brought us to this point today, from a service that was geared solely for the wealthy? It’s TBD whether or not the effort is worth it. Although there are a lot of versions of concierge medicine. A simple differentiator would be nice.
More Reading
Concierge Medicine, Now for the Not-so-Rich | Fox Business
June 12, 2013
How many staff do I need for a concierge medical practice?
Congratulations if you’ve popped the cork on your “cash-only” concierge medicine practice! From the outset, YOU are the captain of your practice, and the sole reason that it even exists. But we’ve got another question to ask before we get to staff…
June 12, 2013
More News Outlets Reporting About Backlash of Hospital Charges
Liz Kowalczyk of The Boston Globe is adding more tinder to the price transparency fire. Her recent article follows patients who are angered by surprise surcharges tacked on to their hospital bills for doctor visits and who are starting to challenging these fees — at times refusing to pay outright!
June 12, 2013
June 11, 2013
CNN Money Interviews Dr. Doug Nunamaker of AtlasMD
Here’s byline CNN ran for their recent concierge medicine article featuring Doug Nunamaker.
“Fed up with declining payments and rising red tape, a small but growing number of doctors are opting out of the insurance system completely. They’re expecting patients to pony up with cash.”
June 11, 2013
Patient complains about being overcharged thousands of dollars by a Napa hospital for medical laboratory tests
Dark Daily published an article saying a community hospital charged Kathy Meinhardt inpatient prices for clinical laboratory testing when she was a walk-up customer. As a result, Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa Valley has found itself centered within a media flare-up.