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BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:
Providing luxury healthcare
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| Gregory Yu is a doctor with Concierge Choice Physicians, a 24-hour on-call doctors program. (Roger Wilson/News-Press) |
Doctor offers ‘concierge,’ or comprehensive, service to patients for $1,800 a year.
By Ryan Vaillancourt
La Cañada Flintridge resident Lauren Chase gets uneasy just thinking about odd illnesses or injuries that could occur unexpectedly when she and her husband, who both love to travel, are far away from their doctor.
She still recounts with a lingering nervousness the time when her husband broke his collarbone while the couple were vacationing in rural Virginia.
“I felt nervous and alone,” Chase said.
But Chase says her anxiety has recently been assuaged by a new healthcare model that gives her 24-hour phone access to her primary care physician, Gregory Yu, who is based in Glendale.
Just knowing that in times of health-related crisis she can connect with her doctor, who can then review her health records with medical officials on hand, puts her at ease, she said.
That access is part of a new “concierge” healthcare service that Yu offers in conjunction with Concierge Choice Physicians, a New York-based company that provides transition and accounting services for doctors who adopt the concierge model.
Called concierge medicine because it is supposed to come with a higher level of patient service, the model requires an upfront investment — Yu charges $1,800 per person annually — for a comprehensive physical exam and a coinciding action plan rooted in preventive health, Yu said.
Because of the upfront payment, the cost of concierge primary care is higher than regular care covered by most public or private insurance plans, but that investment guarantees patients quick access to longer appointments and 24-hour phone access to the doctor, Yu said.
For Yu, who started offering the concierge package a month ago, the service represents a shift back to traditional healthcare where doctors get to know their patients.
In California, where Medicaid reimbursements are among the lowest in the country, primary care physicians are forced to cram as many patients as they can into a day, allowing less time per appointment and making it difficult for patients to secure meetings without much delay, said Wayne Lipton, managing partner of Concierge Choice Physicians.
Thanks to the upfront $1,800 payment that concierge patients make to their doctor — a portion of which goes to Concierge Choice Physicians, which provides membership accounting services — the local practitioner can afford to spend more time with patients, Lipton said.
“Patients have a need to spend more time with their physician and to refocus the kind of care they’ve had to something more akin to old-fashioned care with convenience and an emphasis on prevention and a more intimate and personal relationship with their primary care doctor,” he said.
About 100 of Yu’s 2,300 patients have signed up for the optional program, he said.
“I know this is not for everybody,” Yu said. “But I want to be able to offer this extra service to those who desire it.”
For more information about Concierge Choice Physicians, visit www.choice.md.
She still recounts with a lingering nervousness the time when her husband broke his collarbone while the couple were vacationing in rural Virginia.
“I felt nervous and alone,” Chase said.
But Chase says her anxiety has recently been assuaged by a new healthcare model that gives her 24-hour phone access to her primary care physician, Gregory Yu, who is based in Glendale.
Just knowing that in times of health-related crisis she can connect with her doctor, who can then review her health records with medical officials on hand, puts her at ease, she said.
That access is part of a new “concierge” healthcare service that Yu offers in conjunction with Concierge Choice Physicians, a New York-based company that provides transition and accounting services for doctors who adopt the concierge model.
Called concierge medicine because it is supposed to come with a higher level of patient service, the model requires an upfront investment — Yu charges $1,800 per person annually — for a comprehensive physical exam and a coinciding action plan rooted in preventive health, Yu said.
Because of the upfront payment, the cost of concierge primary care is higher than regular care covered by most public or private insurance plans, but that investment guarantees patients quick access to longer appointments and 24-hour phone access to the doctor, Yu said.
For Yu, who started offering the concierge package a month ago, the service represents a shift back to traditional healthcare where doctors get to know their patients.
In California, where Medicaid reimbursements are among the lowest in the country, primary care physicians are forced to cram as many patients as they can into a day, allowing less time per appointment and making it difficult for patients to secure meetings without much delay, said Wayne Lipton, managing partner of Concierge Choice Physicians.
Thanks to the upfront $1,800 payment that concierge patients make to their doctor — a portion of which goes to Concierge Choice Physicians, which provides membership accounting services — the local practitioner can afford to spend more time with patients, Lipton said.
“Patients have a need to spend more time with their physician and to refocus the kind of care they’ve had to something more akin to old-fashioned care with convenience and an emphasis on prevention and a more intimate and personal relationship with their primary care doctor,” he said.
About 100 of Yu’s 2,300 patients have signed up for the optional program, he said.
“I know this is not for everybody,” Yu said. “But I want to be able to offer this extra service to those who desire it.”
For more information about Concierge Choice Physicians, visit www.choice.md.
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