Is concierge medicine a net plus for US healthcare? Answer depends on perspective
In so-called “concierge care,” patients who can afford annual membership fees of $2,000 to $5,000 enjoy easy access to their primary care providers. Some say the model caters to the wealthy while taking those doctors out of circulation for everyone else.
Not so, respond concierge proponents. The model mostly extends the careers of doctors who would have retired, they say.
Of course, both can be true.
Regardless, academic and other not-for-profit hospitals have been opening concierge service lines as a way to not only tap new revenue streams but also to recruit and retain physicians. These doctors can be counted on to internally refer well-off concierge patients for upstream medical services.
Most concierge patients “have private insurance which pays the hospital very well,” a Johns Hopkins hospital finance expert tells KFF Health News. “From the hospital’s perspective, they are ideal patients.”
Among the large health systems now offering concierge services, KFF notes, are Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, University Hospitals in the Cleveland area and Baptist Health in Miami.
In the article, disseminated by ABC News March 29, a concierge care supporter says the model’s fees “amount to no more than a few dollars a day—about what some people spend on coffee.”
The concierge champion, concierge VP Craig Cheifetz of Inova Health in Virginia, adds that his institution “has an incredible primary care network for those who can’t afford the concierge care. We are still providing all that is necessary in primary care for those who need it.”
KFF notes that not-for-profit Inova has around 6,000 patients on its concierge care rolls. The service line charges patients $2,200 a year and employs 18 doctors with caseloads of 400 or fewer patients.
The outlet quotes a 70-year-old patient who says he visits his concierge physician around 10 to 12 times a year.
“I loved my internist before, but it was impossible to get to see him,” the patient says. Immediate access to his concierge doctor “very much gives me peace of mind.”
More from KFF Health News, which prominently notes the keen interest private equity firms have shown in concierge medicine:
Some concierge physicians say their more attentive care means healthier patients. A study published last year by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania found no impact on mortality rates. What the study did find: higher costs.
Using Medicare claims data, the researchers found that concierge medicine enrollment corresponded with a 30% to 50% increase in total healthcare spending by patients.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.