Preferred Patient

[cgallery]

When my doctor left, loml's doctor was happy to pick me up and gives me the same care as she does anyone else.

Mamograms and all?

[Richard in Smithville]

Mamograms and all?

Well not quite that high( cough cough)

[pelligrini]

Owww..

I wouldn't want to put my (cough coughs) in one of those mamogram contraptions.

[phrog]

Can't resist commenting. There are some ethical issues involved here. Medicine is a service profession, like hotel or restaurant business, except that human health and lives are involved and doctors take an oath to uphold these above all else.

Would it be ethical for a doc to take a bribe to treat a patient? Of course not. So there are limits. There must be a balance between money and service, otherwise doctor is making decisions based on greed, not medical necessity.

If a doctor cannot support his current style of practice and changes it to be more efficient, that's fine. If he or she changes it to make a ton of money, well there is a line there somewhere that has been crossed.

This is a hot topic of discussion among medical professionals:

medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=112475

There's no doubt that while this style of medicine may benefit certain doctors, it does nothing to benefit the health care system as a whole, as we all will find as we get older and look around and can't find a primary care doc.

And beside all this which Jeff has so eloquently stated, my patients would have lined up to shoot me had I tried this while practicing dentistry.
Richard

[MilDoc]

I wish I could make $900,000 a year before I did a lick of work!

Me too! Pediatricians are the lowest paid of all docs. And work longer hours.

"Concierge" medicine seems to work fine in "boutique" areas especially - Manhattan, Los Angelas, Palm Springs, and of course some areas of Florida. Some other places too.

But then again, you get what you pay for. And to put it quite bluntly, unless a "GP" was exceptionally great, I'd only sign up with an Internal med doc, etc.

[ragswl4]

Maybe the doc is just thinking ahead about Universal Health Care and stuffing his bank account for the day when all the fees are fixed at a lower rate. $90K is a nice pad for the coming rainy days.

[gerti]

The health care system is just pathetic. During the last 8 years (go figure) the rates went up how man 100%? And now this. I am sure the most doctors aren't getting rich. But I surely know some health care CEOs who are. Disgusting.

Sorry for the rant, but it just really ticks me off.

[herb fellows]

Food for thought

building lease 125000 probably a little low.
insurance 65000 rough guess
8 staff 560000
utilities 10000
equipment 20000 I'm sure this is low
misc etc 20000
800,000 before he turns a dime



I would not think the 1500 is out of line for restricting his or her patient load to 600, if they are willing to take medicare patients and deal with the paper work etc.

My Previous doc that I no longer have access to chose to not take anyone under medicare or anyone needing pain medications because of the costs of dealing with those to types of claims. When my MS got to where I needed both he dropped me because of it.

We have started thinking that we have the right to socialized medicine, I for one want no part of socialized medicine. Ask anyone in the countries that have had it or anyone that has been deeply involved with an HMO if they like the service that is a available based on their time of need. How quick can you get in etc. Most people are over what they have before they can get an appointment.........or dead.

I would work with a doctor that would offer what this doctor appears to be offering without a question. He is charging upfront and taking reduced service payments from medicare etc. Pain meds require a call once a month that he has to deal with even though it is a long term medication figure out how many hours that is if ev en half of his six hundred are on pain meds..... At least he is serving as best he can.

Sorry to disagree, but my brother lives in England. While the system there is not perfect, I think it's a lot better than 47 million people without basic health insurance. Hmo's in this country and medical care in England are two entirely different animals.
His son cut his hand with an exacto knife while I was there, and off we went to the hospital. The care was identical to what you would have gotten here, only faster and more compassionate.
Ray in the UK, would you care to weigh in on this?

[herb fellows]

"You get what you pay for'? Isn't that what Bernie Madoff's clients said?
Unfortunately, when it comes to picking a Dr, it's not always the case.
Anyone can see the quality difference between a Rolls Royce and a Volkswagen, but when it comes to services, which is esentially what a Dr. is, a service business, it can be a real crapshoot.

At any rate, it's not something you can buy by price alone.

[LCHIEN]

600 of 2000, I would be not surprised to find that 600 of his patients account for 85% of his business (before). Something like the 80/20 rule. I wonder if those 600 are the one who pay... probably will be.

[billwmeyer]

Md

Don't get me wrong here, I really respect the medical profession - but I would never want to go to a doctor that is in it for the money.

The really good doctors and dentists that I have had let their office worry about the money, and they worried about the patients.

I think we have a couple of Drs. like that right here on our forum.

Bill