"The Doctor will see you whenever you want" Qliance

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/qliance-concierge-health-care-for-the-middle-class-07012011.html

By John Tozzi

"Jed Aldridge, a retired firefighter in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Wash., can count on his doctor to see him on one day’s notice, spend an hour with him, and answer e-mails late at night. What his doctor won’t do: accept his health insurance.

Aldridge, 63, is among 4,000 patients in the Seattle area who buy their primary care directly from a group of three clinics called Qliance Medical Group. In exchange for monthly fees between $50 and $130, depending on age, Qliance patients can see their doctors as often as they want. “I feel like I have an advocate for my health,” Aldridge says. Over the past decade, many doctors have established “concierge” practices that offer highly attentive care to ultrawealthy customers who pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month. Qliance founder and internist Garrison Bliss watched as some of his former partners started one of the first concierge practices, known as MD2, in 1996. “I had no interest in a $1,000-a-month practice with 50 patients,” Bliss says. Instead, he adapted the idea for middle-class patients who paid him $65 a month. He eventually had 800 patients, about one-third the number he handled when he accepted insurance. After 10 years of running his own small practice, he opened the first Qliance clinic in Seattle in 2007, which he envisioned as the start of a national network. Now his three clinics have eight doctors and two nurse practitioners. None handles more than 800 patients.

The model eliminates the cost of collecting money from insurers, which Qliance says can eat up $16 of a $60 payment for an office visit, or more than a quarter of a practice’s revenue. Qliance doctors’ income isn’t tied to the number of procedures they do, so they see fewer patients and spend more time with them. Although Qliance doesn’t disclose revenue, Bliss says his earlier, subscription-based practice was “break-even on Day One” and that “this is profitable on very low monthly fees.” Bliss wants to open clinics in every state and has raised $13.5 million from investors including tech moguls Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell.

Patients’ monthly fees cover preventive care, basic tests, advice, treatment for chronic conditions, and simple emergency procedures such as stitches and X-rays. Patients still have to pay for prescriptions, specialists, and hospital expenses. Most have insurance to cover at least some of those costs. According to the company, Qliance patients make fewer trips to hospitals and specialists because of the more attentive primary care and incur 22 percent less in medical costs annually than average. Bliss believes the model could help reduce health-care costs nationwide: “We see this as an enormous, almost unlimited marketplace,” he says."

This looks pretty damn great to me!

..the concept has GREAT potential. I wish them all the best...!!

:hi:

This is an added expense on top of the health insurance...another added expense covering the same things that the health insurance covers too. If it comes out cheaper than the total of co-payments and deducts than I can see it as an idea.

Seriously!

a month. So it depends on your co-pays and deductable rather you'd make out better or not. I guess for people without insurance it's good. But the article doesn't say if he'll take people who have no insurance, only that he doesn't accept their insurance.

and seems to me there are a lot of people who are getting no care and have no coverage who would love to have access to a doc when needed for 65. a month!

(imaginary shaka smilie)

hui hou!

--particularly for chronic disease, hospitalizations that can be prevented often with proper lifestyle modifications and timely medical interference. They are not as likely to have the spare money for such a service so I cannot see this model (if extra cost on top of health insurance) making a significant impact. However, if you have the extra cabbage, it sounds like a great way to get better primary service (as with anything else).