OT: You are rural medicine. Are you seeing internists

OT: You are rural medicine. Are you seeing internists
by Raoul (2024-04-22 09:47:15)

In reply to: This is one of the main reasons why healthcare in the US is posted by austin316

flocking into concierge? My brother works in Chicago and his group is losing internists to concierge medicine left and right. Some work in groups, others on their own. No insurance. Basically rich cash paying clientele where they act as basically doctor and patient advocate. One guy he knows on his own only has 150 patients and charges $30K a year (one of his clients is a very famous old British rock star living now in LA). My brother thinks the urban centers will be devoid of GPs and internists in 10+ years as they all go concierge. Thinks transition will take longer in suburbs because life better for doctors in suburbs. But sees cities as devolving into rich (concierge) and poor (hospital affiliated internist groups - basically cattle calls with long wait times).

Said he's even seeing concierge enter specialists. He would go concierge but within 5 years of retirement and feels conflicted about it morally. He may become a concierge vacation fill-in doc PT as a way to stay in the game.

My neighbors have a practice like this

They're a married couple who are both internists and they have a concierge practice in a strip mall in our local community.

They do really well and I know several people who go to them. My current insurance is really good, so haven't needed to so far, but might consider it in the future. Although I don't really want my neighbor squeezing my testicles or exploring my various orifices.

We’ve had a few who tried but couldn’t make it work

There just aren’t enough people out here with enough money to have a patient panel like that. The cities are seeing a few here and there go this route but nothing major. We have seen another surge of docs getting out of Medicare though.

He mentioned the Medicare thing as well

He said none of the concierge docs take Medicare.