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Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee
See my request for a doctor recommendation on this site today. I received the same letter and will have to find another provider. I was told that concierge medical care is the new thing to help the doctors make up the short fall from medicare payments.
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Personally, I find this trend disgusting. I feel it reinforces the notion that ALL doctors are just looking for money rather than the few that really are. For some, the freedom from the overburdening regulation by Medicare and insurance companies are the allure of concierge medicine
The first guy who did this that I know of was in Palm Beach, charged $5,000/year and limited himself to 200 patients (that's $1 million plus billing for services, no insurance accepted). The quantity of work would be limited, but I suspect he attracted nothing but rich, whiny, demanding hypochondriacs. It only takes 3 or 4 of these patients to drive you nuts, can you imagine 200 with 24/7 access? I wonder how long he lasted. Now, the entrepreneurs have taken over and there are concierge businesses run by a doctor or lawyer that hire doctors, and the only motive is profit. Sad. The good news is there are still plenty of dedicated physicians whose primary interest is patient care.