re: Dr Matt Chamberlain new policy

Its really a great market response to the quagmire of the American Healthcare System. There is a good podcast from Free Thoughts on it entitled "Why Can't You Email Your Doctor?" They interview a primary care physician out of Kansas that uses this model. The idea is to treat healthcare like taking care of your car. You only use insurance for drastic expenses not for changing oil, rotating tire, etc. Thus, you would only carry medical insurance for large expenditures (prolonged serious illness, hospitalization, surgery, etc.) but pay a membership at a low month rate for "maintenance medicine." The high deductible, catastrophic insurance plans are pretty cheap.

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We probably don't disagree here as much as you think.

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It's not a matter of disagreeing. You just tend to spout off without having a clue as to what your talking about.

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The monthly fee, that's not applied to your deductible, correct?

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The fee that you pay to the office does not apply to yoru deductible.

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And what about the procedures you get, and have to pay for? Since the doc is not filing them with your insurance, would they also not apply to your deductible? Or would you have to file something on your own, after each treatment, to get these costs applied to your deductible?

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Correct. You would file the claim yourself and any money you paid the physician would correctly apply to your deductible. The physicians office would provide you a visit summary that has the correct CPT's, ICD's, and any office information you would need to file the claim. The reimbursement check, at whatever the contracted fee is (not necessarily equal to what you paid), would be sent to you instead of the physician.

Though with today insurance policies, you would have to pay $2500-$6500 out of pocket before receiving reimbursement on anything that is not preventative.

Thank you very much for the answers. This was offered to me and I think I'm going to pass and choose a new MD. But wanted to make sure I understood how it worked before deciding.

Honestly, the fact that I will have to file the paperwork with my insurance company after each visit and monitor my deductible is a bigger reason why I don't want to hassle with it, than the monthly cost. Especially considering I would have to do it for my entire family.

I'd tell him to frick himself and choose from the dozens of other doctors in the area that don't do this.

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I don't think they would see a concierge fee as beneficial to their member.

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I mean, you should stop in for a "visit" that costs the concierge fee, pick up the receipt, and turn it in.

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Honestly, the fact that I will have to file the paperwork with my insurance company after each visit and monitor my deductible is a bigger reason why I don't want to hassle with it, than the monthly cost. Especially considering I would have to do it for my entire family.

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Right. Now imagine how we (I'm admin, not MD) feel having to hire 2-3 people, specifically for that purpose, and still can't capture 100% of substandard reimbursement b/c of all the same technicalities and rules that you would have to deal with. I also need a referral person. Prior authorization person. All these FTE's that have absolutely nothing to do with actually providing you care.

That's why Matt is saying "F this!", or at least starting down that path.

The best way to view these "MDVIP" is like private school. That's the issue with Obama Care, letting the government take something over is just going to make those that can afford it to seek better treatment out on their own.

Medicaid is usually 40-60% of most doctor's patients, Doctor's either have to take Medicaid in full or not at all from my understanding. So these "VIP" are cutting more than 50% of their patients.

I just think its laughable people say "frick em" when in reality they are using capitalism to offer much better service to their patients that can afford it while having much better practices.

If the AMA didn't act like jackasses and restrict the number of docs entering the work force we could have an ample number of docs that could see patients for reasonable lengths of time, cut down on paperwork / billing red tape, make decent money per hour worked - and we'd have enough docs to do concierge stuff for those willing to pay for it. The concierge stuff is going to create massive crowding at non-concierge offices and that is going to reduce quality of care and quality of life for all concerned.

AMA has been politicized and supported Obamacare from the outset, which has also prompted this concierge stuff.

On top of that, AMA wants to lecture all of us about the ethics of health insurance and how we all need to pay to help the less fortunate, but won't say a word about people that have to switch docs because the doc goes concierge etc.

JAMA has become an SJW safe haven too - you can count on reading stuff from whiney arse doctors any time you pick up an issue of JAMA.

Saw a letter in their recently from some mangina doctor complaining about someone confusing him for the valet outside the entrance to a restaurant. Total cuckery.