| Assembly Line Health Care Most doctors don’t go through years of medical school expecting to end up practicing on an assembly line with patients hurried along with a quick look and a cheap generic medicine calculated to avoid trouble with the patient’s insurance company. Unfortunately, assembly line medicine is what most doctors today find themselves doing. For many, this assembly line style of medicine is to too impersonal. By asking patients to pay a monthly fee, a doctor can step back from assembly line and provide what is increasingly referred to as concierge primary care. Think of it as more like a gym or health club membership than the traditional doctor appointment. By paying a monthly membership fee, patients schedule an appointment whenever they want, as often as they need, and with adequate time for their doctor to practice good medicine. Typically, a concierge doctor is available weekends and night by phone or email with after hour office appointments when needed. Best of all, you get a doctor that really listens. It’s a little perk the average doctor can’t afford to offer in a traditional 5-7 minute appointment. Concierge care hearkens back to a bygone era when doctors made house calls and got paid directly by the patient. To be sure, it’s a step away from the HMO and PPO insurance model of today where the doctor in effect is a contractor to the patient’s insurance company. Proponents say it reduces health care costs by keeping patient out of hospitals and away from unnecessary expensive procedures. With additional time or diagnosis, patients with multiple chronic diseases really benefit, because they get the face-to-face time needed. An article published in the American Board of Family Medicine described this more direct approach as a growing model. Among groups that have come out in favor of a more direct form of primary care is the American Academy of Family Physicians, whose membership includes 120,000 doctors nationwide. Tell Me More about Concierge Physicians in Huntsville, Alabama. Exit |