Our family doc of 30+ years has announced his semi-retirement.

The vehicle for that is going to be his joining a service called "MDVIP"
and cutting his number of patients from about 4,000 to 600.

The deal is that if somebody wants to continue as his patient, they have
to pony up $1,600 per year as a sort of retainer. Not covered by
health insurance or MediCare, of course... and visits are, of course,
extra.

Wife and I went to the sales pitch today and found it be off-putting.
Both the brochure and slides were heavy on corporate-speak BS and we
walked out after about 20 minutes.

Basically they claim to offer the services and features that one would
expect from any competent physician in a first-world country in the
first place.

Figuring 10 visits a year... that's $160 out-of-pocket for the retainer
plus whatever the deductible is on the visit.

OTOH, I just pulled the 10 visits per year out of the air.... and when I
extend the numbers, they don't really work: 10 visits * 600 patients =
6,000 patient visits/year. 6,000/250 workdays = 24 patients per
day... more on some days, fewer on less. Seems like the doc's pace
would be pretty high.

Backing in to it from the known current 4,000 patients and, to be
conservative, assuming the guy can see 50 patients per day: 250*50 =
12,500 patient visits/year.


12,500/4,000 = only 3.125 visits per patient per year.... so, going back
to the retainer, let's up it to 1,600/3.125 = $512 per visit.... with
the Real Deal being somewhere between $160 and $512.

Have greater minds than mine been through a decision process on this?

I'm not totally writing it off just because of the brochure and the
sales pitch.... there is something to be said for continuing to deal
with a known entity... but $1,600... Geeze Louise !...


Tangentially: If there's significant value to be had here, it sounds
like one more step along the way of the USA becoming a two-tier society.
??
--
Pete Cresswell