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My doctor considering going to "concierge" service
04/16/2013 | Self

Posted on 04/16/2013 3:15:05 PM PDT by rstrahan

Got a survey on behalf of my physician. Now, I've been a patient for over 25 years. But from the sound of the questioning, he is considering closing his primary care operation and going to a concierge, cash-only physician operation ("Royal Pains" style, if you're familiar with the tv show). So, if he does, he'll have the cream of the local populace, and us who rely on private insurance and Medicare will be looking for another doctor.

Just another thank-you to Obama-care.


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: 0carecashonly; 0carenightmare; concierge; conciergeservice; healthcare; medical; medicine; obamacare; physician
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1 posted on 04/16/2013 3:15:05 PM PDT by rstrahan
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To: rstrahan

Good for him. I am looking for one of those.


2 posted on 04/16/2013 3:16:03 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: rstrahan

My GP “retired” not long after Obamacare reared its ugly head. He was only in his 50’s. Not a good thing for me but I totally understand his decision and would have done the same thing.


3 posted on 04/16/2013 3:17:16 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: rstrahan
I think the trend toward concierge service is great. This might be what serves to undermine Obamacare.

The competition will lower private sector health care costs.

4 posted on 04/16/2013 3:17:30 PM PDT by what's up
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To: gorush
It's happening - six Doctors at Baylor Hospital in Dallas did exactly that.

Wait till it really hits next year.

5 posted on 04/16/2013 3:19:32 PM PDT by oldtimer
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To: rstrahan

I think its a great idea

You have 50 patient/families, and you charge them yearly what HALF the cost of insurance is, they agree not to sue you, and everyone is happy (except the lawholes)


6 posted on 04/16/2013 3:19:59 PM PDT by Mr. K (There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and democrat talking points.)
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To: rstrahan

Interesting tidbit, though the mainstream healthcare industry in slightly more socialized countries like Britain are a sewer, ancillary services like plastic surgery and chiropractics see boom times. The obvious reason being.g gubmint control makes things crappy.


7 posted on 04/16/2013 3:21:03 PM PDT by Tublecane
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To: rstrahan
My doctor went to MDVIP about five years ago and I signed up immediately. I have never regretted it. In fact, I just had my annual yesterday!

Two years ago I was really sick on Christmas Day. I called the MDVIP emergency number and asked to leave a message for Dr._____. The voice on the other end said, "This is Dr. ______" He called every pharmacy in town until he found one that was open on Christmas.

8 posted on 04/16/2013 3:21:18 PM PDT by clintonh8r (Happy to be represented by Lt. Col. Allen West)
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To: rstrahan

On my last doctor visit, I needed them to contact the Medicare Advantage plan about a prescription the MA now wants pre-authorized. I have been taking the prescript about 6 years and the MA has paid the last 3 years with no problem.

Anyway, mention of the need for pre-authorization set my doctor into a rant. He complained about the insurance co’s and drug co’s frequently changing their procedures and policies. He said it was enough to make him think about early retirement.

I am apprehensive that when more Obamacare policies and procedures go into effect next year, more doctors will opt for earlier retirement. And the patients will be left at the mercy of the Obamacare bureaucracy.


9 posted on 04/16/2013 3:23:22 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: rstrahan

Never fear. Won’t take the Marxists long to close him down. Can’t control the healthcare industry unless ALL of it is run by the goobermint.


10 posted on 04/16/2013 3:23:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!n)
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To: Mr. K

Opens up so many options for docs and patients. I heard of one who would charge 2 thousand bucks a year - first 500 patients who pay him get in - and he’ll go everything they need. When their care requires more than he can provide, he’ll hook them up with specialist. He knows he gets a million a year to run his office - no paperwork - and patients get what they need.

Damn, the free market. Who’d a thunk it?


11 posted on 04/16/2013 3:24:24 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: rstrahan

Of course. Mark Steyn forecast this movement a couple of years ago.

Government can clamp down on people as much as they want, but people will innovate. One is reminded of a scene from Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago in which he witnessed a man and a woman successfully engaging in an intimate act through the barbed wire that separated their two prison camps.


12 posted on 04/16/2013 3:24:26 PM PDT by lurk
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To: C. Edmund Wright

I sure hope it catches on.


13 posted on 04/16/2013 3:26:53 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: clintonh8r

I’ll bet your dr loves you as a patient, just because you weren’t presumptuous that he’d be answering calls personally on Chrsitmas Day!

I’ve been paying cash to see my dr for decades now, so I’m not “in the system” anyway.


14 posted on 04/16/2013 3:27:45 PM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: what's up

Of course, it will be used to stir up class resentment in a push for yet more healthcare socialism. Imagine, richies paying pet doctors to cater to their every whim, treating them for gout and designer drug addiction while malnourished children die waiting for the care that were the more fortunate in it with the rest of us would be subsidized.


15 posted on 04/16/2013 3:28:00 PM PDT by Tublecane
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To: lurk
Just wait until the government sends in guys like Dickless over here to shut them down.


16 posted on 04/16/2013 3:28:37 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: rstrahan
RS...

If you can't afford it, ask him if you can pay what you can, he probably isn't heartless and you could get some if not all of his services pro-bono. It maybe a win-win, you both think Obamacare is a pile of Suckage, and he is willing to have you in his merry gang to metaphorically thumb your nose at lear deader...

17 posted on 04/16/2013 3:28:43 PM PDT by taildragger (( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
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To: rstrahan
What in Creation are you complaining about? Are you so selfish that you're not sleeping better at night knowing that neither Osama Obama,Bella Pelosi nor Dirty Harry (nor their family members) will ever have to wait 10 seconds or pay a single dime of *their* money to obtain the finest health care available on earth.Canadians can wait up to six months for certain heart operations and *routinely* wait for six months for a hip replacement (I waited 11 days for mine).I know this because I looked it up on a Canadian government website.All this...and worse...will be happening here within a few years.But not for the rich,powerful or connected.My other hip is starting to get bad...I think I might rush the operation before the full effect of OsamaObamaCare kicks in.
18 posted on 04/16/2013 3:28:45 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Leno Was Right,They *Are* Undocumented Democrats!)
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To: dfwgator

I got the survey. It sounded great until at the end it asked if I was will to pay 900 a month. :(


19 posted on 04/16/2013 3:30:43 PM PDT by Orange1998
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To: Tublecane
These aren't "richies". Richies already pay cash for the highest cost healthcare.

Forbes had an article on these concierge services a couple weeks ago. People pay as little as $60/mo. for all basic services...most are a bit higher. The danger to the socialists is that middle income and young people will start to flock to these if they catch on.

It seems they are particularly popular in the Pacific Northwest which is interesting because that's where Kaiser has a strong presence. Competition for their business perhaps?

20 posted on 04/16/2013 3:31:59 PM PDT by what's up
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