Primary Care Provider linking up with MDVIP Group - Now what?

[TheCowsCameHome]

I hope I'm asking this question in the proper forum.

I received a letter today from my primary care physician advising me that in February he is going be associated with MDVIP, a personalized health care program that will basically limit his practice to 600 subscription-only patients, if I'm reading it correctly.

I had never heard of this group, but a quick Google search tells me that this program is an arm of Procter and Gamble, and has been called "boutique medicine", where the doctors reduce the number of patients and spend more time with the ones they have held on to as subscribers.

The annual fee is $1650 each, which my wife and I cannot afford, even if we wanted to join.

Has anyone here on DU had this happen to them? The way I see it, we'll have to find a new PCP, which is a real bummer because our doctor is a wonderful man and we are extremely pleased with him for so many reasons.

This is like a kick in the gut, if it means what I think it does.

Any comments/insight appreciated.

[Vadem]

1. Yes, I am a member of MDVIP. When I turned 65 years old,

I couldn't find a doctor who would take Medicare. I live in the DC Metropolitan area. I found a wonderful doctor in MDVIP, rated tops in all the surveys, who did take Medicare, and who I could see anytime I needed him; he is worth every penny of the $1500 per year extra that I pay to be able to have the security of having a doctor see me when I am sick.

I think Congress needs to pass a law that all doctors must see Medicare patients! We have to go on Medicare when we turn 65, unless we are like the Romney's, and it is hard to find doctors that will take Medicare patients, at least in my area.

I am very grateful for MDVIP! I will continue to pay the extra $1500 per year for that certainty to having a doctor for me.

[cbayer]

2. There are doctors across the country doing this and I have not seen any that are associated

with private insurers or pharma companies, but the one your PCP is joining does appear to be corporately administered. Most are doing it in order to limit or terminate their relationships with those companies.

It lets physicians be physicians again. They can spend time with patients, see patients right away, do what they think is right and not have to get permission to do it.

I've seen fees as low as $300/year and some as high as you are reporting.

Have you talked to him about his reasons for doing this? The ones I have known that have done it wrestled with the decision for a while. For some it was a question of doing this or leaving medicine completely.

It's a reflection of our current system, which I anticipate will change, but not nearly quickly enough.

One alternative for patients is to switch to a high deductible or catastrophic plan and use the premium savings to pay the fee, but this is not an option for those on Medicare or medicaid, so it is a tier of medicine that is really only available to those with disposable income.