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- Oct 27, 2011
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I got a call the other night from my FP doc who was explaining to me that he would be switching to a concierge-style practice (~500 patients pay a yearly fee and have quick access to him whenever they need it). The reasons he gave for doing this were new to me. He said something along the lines that since millions and millions of people will soon be getting health insurance (via affordable care act) his office and other FP's all over the country are going to get swamped with people. The office is going to get so crowed he will have to start seeing patients in 10 minutes or less just to keep his schedule from being booked months in advance; and I would have to wait weeks and weeks for any appointment.
It seems to me he is getting out early and moving to a form of practice with less paperwork and more time. From what I understand, many other FP's are following suit to avoid this looming wave of new patients/all the paperwork that is associated with a large family practice. Although this new method may save current FP's it will do nothing for the millions of new patients that want to start regularly seeing a family doc. The FP's that remain behind will get even more crowed taking up the 3000 patients that each concierge doc will drop + all the new insured people. I can't imagine how difficult it is going to get for people looking for new primary care doctors.
Is this a realistic threat or just some paranoid move by a couple of family docs? If it is a threat, what should be done to encourage FP's to stay around, should we expect the salaries and perks to raise dramatically to encourage more primary care docs or something else? OR is this concierge service a potential FP savior and it could actually help convince new med students to pursue family medicine?
It seems to me he is getting out early and moving to a form of practice with less paperwork and more time. From what I understand, many other FP's are following suit to avoid this looming wave of new patients/all the paperwork that is associated with a large family practice. Although this new method may save current FP's it will do nothing for the millions of new patients that want to start regularly seeing a family doc. The FP's that remain behind will get even more crowed taking up the 3000 patients that each concierge doc will drop + all the new insured people. I can't imagine how difficult it is going to get for people looking for new primary care doctors.
Is this a realistic threat or just some paranoid move by a couple of family docs? If it is a threat, what should be done to encourage FP's to stay around, should we expect the salaries and perks to raise dramatically to encourage more primary care docs or something else? OR is this concierge service a potential FP savior and it could actually help convince new med students to pursue family medicine?
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