The Difference Between Concierge Medicine and General Medicine

The original form of medicine was actually a concierge medicine model that kept the doctor patient relationship as the main feature. I was in a few offices recently for a specialty team that are the best in the area, but not in a concierge practice. In one specialist's office, I waited about 20 minutes to be seen by the PA. She spent about 20 minutes examining me before the surgeon came in. He spent about 5 min, did a brief exam and tried to leave. Now I did ask him a few more questions than he probably normally gets, but he answered them to my satisfaction before making his exit. I spent the remaining 30 min of my appointment with a different assistant. That’s an hour visit, with only 5 min with my doctor. And that’s only slightly higher than the national avg of 7 min. Now if insurance were involved, they would get billed for that entire hour and that's part of the reason our healthcare system is expensive and in my opinion, broken. Today we talk about that difference and how Concierge Medicine can be a great solution.