Concierge Medicine: Not Just For Primary Care Anymore
Concierge medicine isn’t just for internal medicine or primary care anymore. It seems the concept is starting to take hold in cardiology, too:
Starting April 1, patients at Pacific Heart Institute can choose one of four plans for care. In the first option, they pay no “participation fee.” In the second option, called “Select,” they pay $500 a year for priority appointments, warfarin adjustments, defibrillator and pacemaker follow-up, notification of non-urgent lab, and test results, according to Pacific Heart Institute.
In the third option, called “Premier,” they pay $1,800, for everything in “Select,” plus e-mail communication with their doctor, same-day visits during regular office hours, priority lab testing and scheduling of diagnostics, free attendance at speaker seminars on cardiovascular issues, and a dedicated phone line to reach an institute nurse.
In the fourth option, “Concierge,” they pay $7,500 for everything in “Premier,” plus direct 24-hour access to a cardiologist via pager, e-mail, text message, plus the patient’s PHI cardiologist’s personal cell phone, annual personalized cardiovascular wellness screening, night and weekend access to a PHI cardiologist for hospital or emergency services, (regardless of whether he or she is on call) same-day visits with the cardiologist, evening and weekend office appointments and personal calls from the cardiologist.
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
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