A literature review on the impact of concierge medicine services on individual healthcare.

The concept of concierge medicine, established in 1996, stands out for its focus on enhancing accessibility to healthcare providers and customized medical services. It is centered on key principles such as giving priority to quality and individualized care, managing a smaller group of patients to ensure improved service accessibility, and nurturing enhanced continuity in personalized treatment. This review explores various aspects of how concierge medicine impacts healthcare, encompassing areas such as patient satisfaction and involvement, health outcomes, preventive care, healthcare expenses, and ethical and legal considerations. While the affirmative influence of concierge medicine on individual healthcare has been evidenced in terms of patient contentment, active patient participation, preventive care, and early identification of illnesses, there remains a dearth of research data to firmly establish the correlation between concierge medicine and health-related outcomes. Moreover, comprehensive longitudinal studies focusing specifically on the economic and policy implications of concierge medicine are currently lacking. Therefore, further research, particularly in the domain of health economics, is crucial to comprehensively comprehend the implications of this approach. Similarly, there is a necessity for studies that can conduct a comparative analysis between the concierge medicine model and traditional healthcare models, aiming to draw more robust and definitive conclusions.

On resource allocation in health care: The case of concierge medicine.

Resource allocation generally involves a tension between efficiency and equity, particularly in health care. The growth in exclusive physician arrangements using non-linear prices is leading to consumer segmentation with theoretically ambiguous welfare implications. We study concierge medicine, in which physicians only provide care to patients paying a retainer fee. We find limited evidence of selection based on health and stronger evidence of selection based on income. Using a matching strategy that leverages the staggered adoption of concierge medicine, we find large spending increases and no average mortality effects for patients impacted by the switch to concierge medicine.

Bioética e medicina personalizada no envelhecimento: explorando complexidades / Bioethics and concierge medicine in aging: exploring complexities / Bioética y medicina personalizada en el envejecimiento: explorar las complejidades

Resumo A medicina personalizada surgiu como uma abordagem promissora para fornecer tratamentos exclusivos e personalizados para doenças usando ferramentas genômicas. No campo dos estudos do envelhecimento, a medicina personalizada tem grande potencial para transformar o tratamento e a prevenção de doenças associadas à idade e relacionadas à nutrigenômica e à farmacogenômica. No entanto, o uso de dados genômicos na medicina personalizada levanta preocupações bioéticas significativas, incluindo questões como privacidade, consentimento, equidade e potencial uso indevido de dados genômicos para fins discriminatórios. Portanto, é crucial considerar cuidadosamente os aspectos biomédicos, sociais e éticos da medicina personalizada no contexto de condições relacionadas à idade. Esta revisão tem o objetivo de explorar os principais aspectos da medicina personalizada concernentes a doenças relacionadas à idade nos dados farmacogenômicos e nutrigenômicos, abordando as preocupações bioéticas envolvidas no uso desses dados.

Abstract Concierge medicine emerged as a promising approach to offer exclusive and personalized treatments using genomic tools. In aging studies, concierge medicine has the potential to transform the treatment and prevention of age-associated and related diseases through pharmacogenetics and nutrigenomics; however, its use of genomic data raises important bioethical concerns, including privacy, consent, equity issues and potential misuse of these data for discriminatory purposes. Hence, careful consideration should be given to the biomedical, social, and ethical aspects of concierge medicine in aging contexts. Our review explores the main aspects of age-related pharmacogenetics and nutrigenomics data in concierge medicine, discussing the bioethical concerns involved in its use.

Resumen La medicina personalizada surgió como un enfoque prometedor con el fin de proporcionar tratamientos únicos y personalizados a enfermedades utilizando herramientas genómicas. En los estudios de envejecimiento, la medicina personalizada puede transformar el tratamiento y la prevención de enfermedades asociadas a la edad y relacionadas con la nutrigenómica y la farmacogenómica. Sin embargo, el uso de datos genómicos en medicina personalizada plantea importantes preocupaciones bioéticas, incluidos temas como la privacidad, el consentimiento, la equidad y el posible uso indebido de los datos genómicos con fines discriminatorios. Así, es fundamental ponderar cuidadosamente los aspectos biomédicos, sociales y éticos de la medicina personalizada en el contexto de las afecciones relacionadas con la edad. Esta revisión pretende explorar los principales aspectos de la medicina personalizada sobre las enfermedades relacionadas con la edad en los datos farmacogenómicos y nutrigenómicos al abordar las preocupaciones bioéticas involucradas en el uso de estos datos.

Concierge care and patient reviews.

We examine how patient numerical ratings and specific words in written reviews of family physicians and internists in the states of California and Florida differ based upon concierge doctor status. Data are drawn from Healthgrades.com, one of the largest providers of online reviews, and a machine-learning sentiment analysis is used to determine the predictors of concierge status and numerical patient ratings. We find that reviews of concierge doctors are more likely to contain technical words associated with health care, such as "staff" and "office," compared with traditional physicians. In contrast, interpersonal bedside-manner words, like "listen" or "concerns," are most likely in reviews for nonconcierge doctors. We further determine that, whereas interpersonal words exhibit both positive and negative effects on numerical ratings, technical terms seem to primarily correlate negatively with patient scores for all doctors. The present work represents a first step towards understanding the measures of quality of care that relate with the patient experience, and in particular with respect to the growing field of concierge medicine. It is also the first attempt we are aware of that employs sentiment analysis in this context.

Dignitary Medicine: A Novel Area of Medical Training.

Dignitary medicine (DM) involves the provision of healthcare to government leaders and other high-profile individuals collectively referred to as "dignitaries." Due to the unique circumstances around their lifestyle, dignitaries often receive suboptimal healthcare. We define the requisite skills needed to practice DM based on the available literature and provide a framework for training providers in these skills. A review of the English language medical literature focussing on adult subjects was performed, searching for terms such as "dignitary medicine," "VIP medicine," and "protective medicine." Literature was gathered from CINAHL, Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCOHost, and San Bernardino County Library databases and then analyzed by experienced DM providers. A total of 23 relevant articles were eligible for review. No meta-analyses on the subject exist. We found that existing studies highlight skills in wellness, executive health, and protective medicine, which form the backbone of DM. The burgeoning field of DM encompasses several disciplines and skills. We strongly recommend a structured curriculum for the field of DM, focused on dignitary wellness, executive health, and protective medicine.

Lifestyle Medicine in a Concierge Practice: My Journey.

While lifestyle medicine (LM) has been increasingly recognized for its value in preventing and managing chronic disease, the conventional primary care practice has struggled to be a financially viable model for this time-intensive, highly personalized approach. However, the concierge medicine model provides many advantages to those seeking to incorporate the tenets of LM. Concierge medicine is characterized by smaller patient panels, extended visits, continuous follow-up, and a distinctive emphasis on prevention and wellness. These characteristics promote high-quality, individualized care. North Cypress Internal Medicine and Wellness was able to successfully transform from a more traditional medical model to one with essential LM-focused offerings with expert assistance, as well as ongoing support from a dedicated team of lifestyle-oriented health professionals who provide wellness coaching, proactive chronic care management, and prevention programs. This article describes the transition and includes specific details of services and care offered at a concierge practice. It illustrates how this alternative model can provide an effective solution for delivering the full potential of LM.

Concierge, Wellness, and Block Fee Models of Primary Care: Ethical and Regulatory Concerns at the Public-Private Boundary.

In bioethics and health policy, we often discuss the appropriate boundaries of public funding; how the interface of public and private purchasers and providers should be organized and regulated receives less attention. In this paper, I discuss ethical and regulatory issues raised at this interface by three medical practice models (concierge care, executive wellness clinics, and block fee charges) in which physicians provide insured services (whether publicly insured, privately insured, or privately insured by public mandate) while requiring or requesting that patients pay for services or for the non-insured services of the physicians themselves or their associates. This choice for such practice models is different from the decision to design an insurance plan to include or exclude user fees, co-payments and deductibles. I analyze the issues raised with regards to familiar health care values of equity and efficiency, while highlighting additional concerns about fair terms of access, provider integrity, and fair competition. I then analyze the common Canadian regulatory response to block fee models, considering their extension to wellness clinics, with regards to fiduciary standards governing the physician-patient relationship and the role of informed consent. I close by highlighting briefly issues that are of common concern across different fundamental normative frameworks for health policy.

Direct Primary Care in 2015: A Survey with Selected Comparisons to 2005 Survey Data.

INTRODUCTION: Direct primary care (DPC), a fee for membership type of practice, is an evolving innovative primary care delivery model. Little is known about current membership fees, insurance billing status, physician training, and patient panel size in DPC practices. This study aimed to obtain current data for these variables, as well as additional demographic and financial indicators, and relate the findings to the Healthy People 2020 goals. It was predicted that DPC practices would (1) submit fewer claims to insurance, (2) have decreased membership fees, (3) be primarily family medicine trained, and (4) have increased the projected patient panel size since 2005. METHODS: An electronic survey was sent to DPC practices (n = 65) requesting location, membership fees, projected patient panel size, insurance billing status, training, and other demographic and financial indicators. Data were aggregated, reported anonymously, and compared to two prior characterizations of DPC practices done in 2005. RESULTS: Thirty-eight of 65 (59%) practices responded to the 2015 survey. The majority of respondents (84%) reported using an EMR, offering physician email access (82%), 24-hour access (76%), same day appointments (92%), and wholesale labs (74%). Few respondents offered inpatient care (16%), obstetrics (3%), or financial/insurance consultant services. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of practices reported annual individual adult membership rates between $500 and $1,499, decreased from 2005 where 81% reported greater than a $1,500 annual fee. The proportion of practices who submit bills to insurance decreased from 75% in 2005 to 11% in 2015. Fifty-six percent (56%) of practices reported projected patient panel size to be greater than 600, increased from 40% in 2005. Family medicine physicians represented 87% of respondents, markedly different from 2005 when 62 - 77% of DPC respondents were general internal medicine physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Most DPC practices no longer submit to insurance and are family medicine trained. Compared with the previous sampling, DPC practices report decreased membership fees and increased projected panel size. These trends may signify the DPC movement's growth in application and scope.