Concierge Medicine Is Not Just for the Rich

The idea of a private doctor is one which instantly associates the well-to-do with private medical care. Having a doctor on call to serve their needs, as and when they require care or providing a very personal and exclusive service. This obviously costs a great deal of money, but private medicine delivers private doctor care which is now within the budget of many middle class patients and their families.

A typical medical practice will be primarily funded by insurance company payments for medical procedures, subsidized by patient co-pays and federal and state health subsidies.

Private medicine removes the insurance company from the equation. The reason for doing this is simple: insurance company administration is cumbersome and very expensive, accounting for large chunks of the total cost of providing health care and eating into the time available for medical staff and doctors to actually deliver care to patients.

In order to make their practice pay, insurance company funded practices must employ a large administrative staff to handle the paperwork and ensure approvals are received for delivering treatment. In addition, there are plenty of restrictions on what a doctor can actually prescribe or recommend as a course of treatment due to insurance company policies and limitations.

From a commercial point of view, this means that such medical practices must have large numbers of patients on their books in order to make the practice a viable business.

Private medicine removes a large cost element from the overall bill, which means patients pay less overall. In addition, concierge medicine practices are able to devote a far greater proportion of their time to the care of their patients.

In essence, the removal of insurance companies from the scene results in two immediate patient advantages: reduced cost and medical bills for patients and improved care and attention from the doctor delivering care, unrestricted by external restrictions.

There is also a further advantage which derives from the private doctor business model: the numbers of patients in the portfolio of a concierge medical practice is much less than a traditional medical practice.

The main question which prospective patients ask is just how much will concierge doctor services cost?

The answer to this question is that they typically see a reduction in their medical bills, because they are paying a retainer to the concierge practice for doctor care rather than paying full premiums to an insurer who then divides the cake while retaining a profit element. Concierge medicine removes the middle man (the insurance company) from the cost of delivering care, and instead payment is made direct to the health care provider.

The benefits of engaging a concierge physician practitioner are clear. You pay for the services you receive, rather than paying for the insurance companies' profit margin and subsidizing other patient's care. You receive greater and more dedicated attention from your doctor, because they typically have far fewer patients to care for compared to a traditional doctor practice. Perhaps the greatest benefit is that concierge physician practitioners are not restricted or influenced by external considerations or insurance company restrictions - they are free to recommend whatever medical treatment they believe is appropriate for their patients.

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