In a message dated 01-07-02 21:45:28 EDT, you write:
<< Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 18:37:17 -0400
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
Subject: class medicine
Business Week - July 9, 2001
MEDI-TREND
The Doctor Will Really See You Now
White-glove service, not generally associated with the
cost-beleaguered medical industry, is catching on among doctors.
Frustrated with managed care, they're quitting HMOs and setting up
competition--expensive, specialized groups for patients willing to
pay. Such service has long been available on Park Avenue and in a few
progressive practices in Seattle; but now, MDVIP, a four-month-old
company in Boca Raton, Fla., has been helping several Florida doctors
launch upscale medical groups. It expects 100 affiliated physicians
by next year.
"We've already started moving into the Northeast and California,"
says Andrew Ripps, MDVIP's chief operating officer. "The potential is
tremendous."
It works like this: Doctors quit their HMOs and close their
practices, then relaunch with no more than 600 patients paying $1,500
a year. For the fee, plus a per-visit cost averaging $50 to $75,
patients get same-day or next-day appointments, special phone
numbers, and other services. Patients can still use private medical
insurance, Medicare, or out-of-network provisions for reimbursement.
"It's so much more professionally satisfying," says Robert Colton, an
internist who switched after becoming fed up with shrinking HMO
reimbursements and a 3,000-patient load that didn't allow time for
care.
But some medical ethicists are troubled by the trend. "We're going to
have a class of haves and have-nots," says John Lincourt, a
bioethicist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. But to
MDVIP, it's about choice. "We view it much the same as the choice
between private school and public school," says Edward Goldman, an
MDVIP investor. "Not everyone can send their kids to private school."
Or to a white-glove doctor.
By Aixa M. Pascual >>