Ah, the seductive allure of “more medicine”. A clinic that offers $1,400 physicals gets 600 of them last year. For those that are counting, thats approaching a million dollars in revenue.
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- Executive physicals, and what the Mayo Clinic doesn’t want you to know
- The annual physical
- The annual physical
- Inevitable
- ER crisis in Tuscon
- Is this the type of physical Kaiser provides?
- Doctors sue their lawyers after a malpractice loss
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1. It is probably a perk/benefit for those executives and their families, which is perceived as better than a typical insurance plan.
2. It may be a requirement for the company’s life and disability policies that it carries on key executive employees.
3. Most physicals aren’t covered anyway (leaving aside the debate of their utility) and physicals performed by more than one doctor would ordinarily add up to several hundreds of dollars in fees, even before the costs of testing.
4. Routine comprehensive executive physicals are common in many less- high-profile occupations, aviation personnel and the military especially, so this example is not so strange. If you priced the services of those physicals (which include generalist and specialist evaluation: family practice, ophthalmology or optometry, cardiology, audiology, dental, radiology and laboratory testing) on the private market, I doubt that $1400 would seem so strange or so excessive.
Kevin, do you disagree with this? If so, why?
I tried to find a cardiologist offering concierge care in California, AND COULDN’T FIND ONE. It then hit me (*duh*) that evidently the specialists are doing so well they haven’t seen the need to enter this niche market.
I think more primary care docs should take advantage of boutique medicine…and if anybody does know of a concierge care cardiology group I’d be mighty appreciative!
Kevin – Thanks for the mention. It is just one interesting example for cash healthcare. There are lots of examples of cosmetic activities where people pay cash, but this is one of the few which clearly should have some health benefits.
George
http://www.georgevanantwerp.com
retainer medicine is probably best served by primary care. when you are in search of a retainer cardiologist, you are looking for someone to address only your cardiac needs? the other challenge is that in cardiology there are so many special tests and procedures needed that they would definitely need the patient to have insurance. and the insurance won’t allow double billing typically, which is what they consider the retainer.
not to say it is a bad idea, but there are some logistical issues that need to be worked out for sure.
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