New Trend In Health Insurance: Low-Cost Concierge Medicine
recent survey of physicians by the consulting firm Accenture found that one in three independent doctors is thinking about no longer accepting health insurance and going into what’s been called concierge care, where they cap the number of patients they see, and patients –who pay them as much as $30,000 a year– get to see the doctor whenever they want.
But Bloomberg Businessweek reports that a new trend is emerging: low-cost concierge care, such as Atlas MD, a family practice in Wichita, Kansas, which charges most of its adult patients just $50 dollars a month for unlimited visits, free medical tests, house calls… you even get the doctor’s cell phone number.
“It makes it very nice,” says co-founder Dr. Doug Nunamaker, “because now I don’t have to bill and code and satisfy an insurance company for reimbursement.”
‘Patient Factories’
Atlas MD, according to Dr. Nunamaker, has two physicians and one nurse. A neighboring clinic in Witchita has six physicians and 62 employees. Dr. Nunamaker does limit his patient load to 500-600 people, and critics say doctors who do that can select the healthiest patients to keep costs down.
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/12/10/concierge-medicine-health-care
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