Doctors

Non-Affiliated Doctors

The problems your practice currently faces

“For the independent doctor, the current “fee for service” model is broken. In addition to the fact that this model does not reimburse wholly, an overwhelming amount of responsibilities have been handed to physicians without compensation. After hours phone calls from patients and their family members require us to operate on a semi-permanent “on call” basis. Whether at home or in the office, we must verify requests for electronic medical prescriptions. We slog through lists of potential adverse drug interactions, taking responsibility with each new prescription for the health and welfare of our patients. We complete disability and home care paperwork. We review laboratory values and make subsequent calls to patients. This list goes on… and guess what? Often, we have no means of reimbursement for our time and expertise for these “extra” tasks. For those of us that value autonomy and desire to remain the proprietors of our own practices, this is a serious problem. The increased workload and concurrent decrease in reimbursement has ushered in a trend of independent doctors selling their practices to go work for the big medical groups. You didn’t work hard through your medical education and training to be told what to do by someone only interested in pure business, with limited insight into the practice of medicine. It’s time to recognize that there’s a problem you can no longer ignore. Fortunately, concierge medicine may be the solution.”
—Steven Tilles, MD, co-founder of MDprime

Concierge medicine, a solution

The concept behind concierge medicine is simple – physicians provide enhanced services and more personalized care to their patients in exchange for a retainer fee. Typical “enhanced” services include after-hours phone, email and other electronic communications, extended office visits, easier scheduling and faster access to in-office appointments, house calls and an array of other customizable options. Concierge medicine is suitable for physicians in primary care or for specialists that treat their patients on a regular basis. The majority of physicians engaging in concierge medicine opt for the “hybrid” model. This model allows physicians to maintain their traditional practices, while providing concierge medicine services to a select group of patients. Under this model, physicians continue to bill insurance for services they provide that are not covered under their concierge medicine agreements. The appeal of concierge medicine is that it liberates physicians from the constraints of “fee for service” or insurance-based payment systems and produces a comprehensive, two-way dialogue between a physician and many of his or her patients, while expanding financial reimbursement for the physician. Where conventional models are designed to ensure that physicians are paid as little as possible in order to maximize the profits of large insurance carriers, concierge medicine enables physicians to capture value where reimbursement was previously unattainable.

MDprime is here to help

Navigating the web of marketing, sales, finance, accounting and other business and potentially legal obstacles inherent to concierge medicine can be a daunting task and is often a barrier to entry. And for busy doctors, attempting to handle these obstacles alone may not be the right move. Take a moment to consider whether you’re willing to spend the time, effort and money to learn the business complexities of managing and operating a concierge program while putting your existing practice in jeopardy. By working with a 3rd party concierge medicine manager, physicians are able to concentrate on what they do best – practicing medicine – while the tasks of managing the implementation and success of a concierge medicine program are left to experts.

MDprime offers physicians an opportunity to get the most out of working with a concierge medicine manager, while avoiding unnecessary costs, commissions and other burdens often encountered with other 3rd party concierge medicine managers. We can provide you with the means to succeed by designing and managing a custom tailored concierge program that fits your specific needs, without being too time-consuming or overly intrusive to your existing practice.

The services we provide include:

1. In the pre-implementation stage, we’ll provide you with strategic planning and advice, development of your customized concierge program, creation of a personalized program website, creation of marketing materials and staff training.
2. We’ll help you market your practice to your patients, fill your patient panel, and get you up and running in the program implementation stage.
3. After implementation, we’ll provide you with continued support throughout the life of your program through management of membership billing, continued membership acquisition services, maintenance of the regulatory aspects affecting your program, access for you and your patients to exclusive media and materials and more.