When you stop to think about the history of health care in the United States you can sometimes begin to wonder how we got to where we are. Most people alive today only remember doctor’s offices as we know them today and in many ways the advancements made have been remarkable. Those with access to health care in America are living longer and things that used to kill us are now being cured with much success. The thing that has been lost in the race for innovation and trying to bring a greater number of people into the health care system is the level of personal care all doctors used to provide. The problem is not the doctors. America’s health care providers have just as much compassion today as they ever did but rising administrative costs and other overhead costs that have nothing to do with providing quality care are making it harder for compassionate doctors to spend the necessary time with their patients. In order to make enough money to cover rising costs doctors have to see a much higher volume of patients. For many doctors the risks involved with handling increasing numbers of patients has lead to the development of an alternative to the current system. This new plan is called concierge medicine.

Concierge medicine is a broad term used to describe any doctor’s practice that has implemented an upfront patient fee in exchange for more personalized service. There are several different sub categories under the title concierge medicine including direct primary care, in this case the patient fee covers all basic care for the year and no insurance plans are excepted, and boutique medicine where the fee give patients unlimited access any time day or not to their doctor and covers house calls. It is not cheap to receive this type of care the highest fees charged can reach five thousand dollars or more. When fees are in the thousands per year patients are usually covered for check ups and basic tests required to diagnose any illness. Other offices charge a smaller fee that is usually between five hundred and one thousand dollars. Patients who pay these smaller fees are paying to help cover the financial loss of not taking on an overwhelming number of patients. In other words, patients are paying to have flexible access to their doctor.

The critics of this type of care call it medicine for the rich. However many doctors who have converted their practices to this type of system are reporting that they are able to drop their prices because they are cutting administrative costs. They argue that money has to be cut from somewhere if you want to make something more affordable and in order to provide quality care they prefer to make cuts in places that do not affect patients.

The data collected about this type of care has not shown a heavy shift in this direction yet but it is picking up slowly. Among healthcare providers pediatricians and dentists make up the fastest growing group converting to this type of business model. For parents, having a doctor available to them is a relief since children generally require more visits for non life threatening reasons that adults.

Visit AAPP.org for more information on becoming a concierge physician and the latest news on private healthcare in the US.

Visit http://www.aapp.org for more information on becoming a concierge physician and the latest on private healthcare in the US can be found at http://www.aapp.org/newsroom-2/news.

Author Bio: Visit AAPP.org for more information on becoming a concierge physician and the latest news on private healthcare in the US.

Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: Health, Doctor, Specialist, Treatment, Family