The ethics of concierge medicine have long been discussed throughout the health care industry. Since the beginning of concierge medicine back in the mid-nineties, the number one debate surrounding concierge medicine has been the ethics behind charging a feee for better service. Should better service be given already? Well, in a perfect world the answer to that question would be a big YES. However, in our world with big government and a bigger health care overhaul coming, some things will never be perfect.

Here’s the rub; what is ethical about a traditional practice physician is falling into the red because of healthcare reform bureaucracy, is losing money due to Medicare cuts, and is forced to see more patients in less time? Is it unethical for that physician to seek out a better alternative so that they might live a better, healthier life?

Here’s some irony as well; the NYTimes article refers to a national meeting that took place this past year to discuss the ethics of concierge medicine. It was expected to be a day of debate and heated arguments titled “Concierge Medicine: The Debate Continues.” The day ended up being an informational seminar for physicians who were more interested in converting to concierge medicine than debating the ethics of it.

Get more on this topic about the Ethics of Concierge Medicine from this link.

Is the White House making too many assumptions about how successful the health care overhaul will be? Are they placing far too much pressure on our physicians?Whether you’re for or against the health care overhaul, for or against concierge medicine, or on the fence about everything health related, it’s impossible to overlook the amount of assumptions that are being made about almost everything.

We’ve been spending so much time talking about Medicare and health care reform lately that you’re probably getting tired of it, but the reality is that there’s just so much disillusion out there. There are so many physicians and patients that will be affected by the upcoming changes that we need to keep you informed and on top of the latest news. When family physicians are expected to increase their productivity while at the same time losing income, it’s something to be concerned and obsessed about. Medicare cuts are looming, and they could come as large at 30 to 40 percent very soon. That will have a huge effect on physician’s income and overall care of their patients.

For more on this topic of Medicare, or for more information about concierge medicine, visit http://www.SignatureMD.com toay!

While we are still waiting and wondering exactly how each of us will be affected by the health care overhaul, concierge medicine is growing among those concerned. Those American’s who are concerned not only about health care reform, but ultimately about their own personal health, are taking another look at their health situation and how it can be improved. In many cases, concierge medicine is the answer.

Catch this article in it’s entirety at http://www.SigantureMD.com

“According to data from the Concierge Medicine Research Collective, $13 trillion could buy 10 years of round-the-clock on-call medical care for more than 928 people – or for the entire population of the U.S. for 30 years.” – SmartMoney.com

At this moment, actually at probably many moments ago, the total national publci debt outstanding in the U.S. was $13. 057 trillion. Roughly calculated, that’s just over $42,000 per U.S. citizen. SmartMoney.com ran an interesting report last week examining all of the things that $13 million can do for this country, and concierge medicine was one of the topics.

Among other things that we could do with $13 tillion, each American could buy 9 iPhones, 68 million students could attend Yale University, 65 million families could get a new home, and clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico could happen 326 times. It’s amazing what our U.S. debt could do for our country, if only we had the money.

As individuals we are constantly at the mercy of the all-mighty dollar. Health care is no different. According to a recent report in the Boston Globe; “Massachusetts insurance companies pay some hospitals and doctors twice as much money as others for essentially the same patient care.”

The article goes on to say “payments were most closely tied to market leverage, with the largest hospitals and physician groups, those with brand-name recognition, and those that are geographically isolated able to demand the most money.”

This shows a scary trend towards concentrated power, where hospitals and doctors who might not be providing better care, perhaps might even be providing less care, can demand more money based on influence. However, the more money doesn’t mean better health care.

For more information about preventative health care that can save us all money, visit http://www.SignatureMD.com today.

According to ScienceDaily, hospital doctors who are frequently interrupted while working in a clinical environment spend less time on tasks and fail to return to almost a fifth of their jobs in hand, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care. This is a scary proposition considering the fact that more and more family physicians and medical students are turning to salaried positions at hospitals.

Researchers in Australia conducted a study in a 400-bed teaching hospital, observing 40 doctors over different weekday sessions, totaling a period of 210 hours. What they found leads all of us at SignatureMD to believe even more strongly in the power of concierge medicine and the importance of having this healthcare solution available to those who need it.

Doctors multi-tasked for 12.8% of the time and the average time spent on a task was 1.26 minutes.

These interruptions — such as a doctor being asked a question by a colleague while they were trying to write a prescription — meant that doctors, when they did return to the job in hand, tended to spend less time on it than if they had carried out the task with no pause.

For tasks with one interruption, doctors tended to complete the task in about half the time they would have spent if they had not been interrupted.

To get more information on this topic and read the rest of this article, visit http://www.signaturemd.com.

Concierge doctors and patients alike agree; a brain hemorrhage is scary stuff. When it hits, it hits big and fast, and unless you catch it before it happens, or know the symptoms as they immediately occur, you could be in some serious trouble, as Bret Michaels recently found out.

Michaels suffered from a massive brain hemorrhage last month that left him in critical condition at an Arizona hospital. Michaels is one of the lucky few, very few, who have had a massive brain hemorrhage and survived. Michaels has not only cheated death and survived, his brain is no longer bleeding and he is expected to make a full recovery.

According to WebMD, a brain hemorrhage occurs when blood from trauma irritates brain tissues, causing swelling in the brain. This is known as cerebral edema. The pooled blood in the brain collects into a mass called a hematoma. These conditions increase pressure on nearby brain tissue, and that reduces vital blood flow and kills brain cells.

Get the rest of this article at http://www.signaturemd.com/blog/?p=357

In concierge medicine, you pay for top-nothc medical services. Services that are innovative and preventative from concierge doctors who are some of the best in their field. When it comes to your health and your families health, would you consider bartering products, like a chicken perhaps, for medical attention? Bartering with your family physician, whether it’s with chickens or not, might not be the best route to take when considering a solution for health care reform.  If you haven’t heard the latest health care production unfolding before us it involves two players, GOP frontrunner Sue Lowden of Nevada, and a chicken.

“I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor, they would say I’ll paint your house. That’s the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system.”  — Sue Lowden

Sure, bartering occurs on many levels within our nation, and that probably includes bartering for medical attention. There are many across America who cannot afford to pay the fee to see their family physician. However, consider this; how much does a chicken cost? How many chickens would it take to constitute enough money to get the health care you need? A hundred? A thousand chickens?

Bartering doesn’t work very efficiently anymore simply because money makes the world go around. You might offer to paint your physicians house in return for medical attention, however what happens if you don’t pain it up to his standards? What happens if your neighbor offers to fix your doctor’s leaky roof and does a better job, will he get better medical attention? It’s a scary route to take when considering your health and well-being.

Concierge medicine and personalized medicine offers top-notch services for a yearly fee. This fee is the same for every concierge patient, and allows your concierge doctor to give you 24-7 access to him and house calls, just like the “good old days.” Concierge medicine has its roots in the past, the good parts of the past where you could have your family physician stop by the house when you were sick, yet concierge doctors are the best of the best in the industry.

If you want to barter some chickens or services for medical attention then you should expect the attention to match the price of those chickens, which is probably not worth much. It’s a scary proposition; chickens probably won’t go very far in this medical mess that we’re in. However, if you want trusted, top-notch medical attention with that “good old days” feeling that comes with 24-7 access and house calls, consider concierge medicine.

Medicine is changing, and the old motto “politics as usual” is doing nothing good to give Americans confidence in not only their government, but their healthcare. Patients are finding themselves not only done with “Politics as usual,” but done with the entire healthcare field. Concierge medicine is a growing field for many reasons, one of which is a direct result of “politics as usual.”

It’s quite a dichotomy; the fact that politicians are fighting over this healthcare reform bill, wanting a change in medicine that will benefit every American, and yet pushing people away from healthcare all together. Patients aren’t covered by insurance companies as they once were, nor are they visiting their family physician as often. Today, solutions such as Take Care Clinics and neighborhood nurse practitioners with their own offices are seeing a rise in traffic.

The same old polticis in Washington is creating a detrimental trickle down affect on everyone here at home. As politicians lower doctor salaries through Medicare cuts and bicker back and forth about healthcare reform, Americans are just plain fed up. They’re fed up with politics, which, these days, includes healthcare. In the end, it’s the family physician who loses patients, money, and eventually their practice.

As students are scared away from practicing primary medicine, the physician shortage will only grow. And as we lose physicians, we will gain more nurse practitioners and clinics. These services already charge less, are more convenient, and offer same day services. The family physicians that actually remain practicing won’t be able to compete.

This is when concierge medicine, the market based solution for our current healthcare and financial situation, comes into play. In many hybrid cases, concierge practices take insurance and cash for services.

How else are family physicians expected to compete? When the patient wants a quick diagnosis, they head to the local pharmacy and sit down with the nurse practitioner. Healthcare is definitely changing, and so should physicians. Concierge doctors usually keep spa-like offices, offer personalized services, and are able to keep their doors open to their patients.

For more information on converting your practice to a concierge practice, visit http://www.SignatureMD.com today.

Dr. Chan sees changing healthcare field drastically affecting patient-doctor relationships

Phoenix, AZ February 23, 2010:  Dr. Kevin Chan, a practicing Phoenix physician, recently brought patients together to tell them things in his office were changing. Instead of hustling to see as many patients as possible a week, Dr. Chan had decided to add a new service (concierge medicine) that limits his practice to 600 patients, total. He called this new practice Rejenesis.

“The time has come for an alternate model of healthcare delivery in the 21st century,” Dr. Chan told his patients. “One that changes from the fast-paced, volume-based, assembly-line, impersonalized, and reactive conventional medicine to the time-devoting, quality-driven, patient-centered, individualized, and proactive functional physiologic medicine that focuses on prevention and wellness, addresses the whole person, body, mind and spirit, incorporates complementary and alternative medical therapies, and promotes optimal health far beyond the mere absence of illness.”

With the changing healthcare field, skyrocketing premiums and slow reimbursements patients and doctors alike are seeking market based solutions and alternatives. According to Dr. Chan, misdiagnosis and “symptom suppression” has saturated the medical industry.

“We will focus on the patterns of imbalances rather than the insurance code diagnoses,” Dr. Chan told patients. “We are used to naming the disease, blaming the disease, and then taming the disease with medications that you often take chronically. The reality is that these chronic diseases are often caused by hormone deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies, and toxin excesses. They are not simply caused by medication deficiencies.”

Dr. Chan, with the help of SignatureMD, added a new medical practice that is a bit more personal. Instead of trying to manage the care of 3,000+ patients, SignatureMD physicians focus their care and attention on 300 to 600 patients and improve their patients’ health and enjoyment of life.  By dedicating their attention to a smaller patient population, SignatureMD physicians are able to communicate on a regular basis with patients, something that is lacking with standard practice physicians.

Dr. Chan uses a personalized form of medicine called Functional Physiologic Medicine, which focuses on primary prevention and treatments designed to address underlying causes instead of symptom suppressions. Dr. Chan’s new practice allows for same day appointments, tightly coordinated care with specialists, his personal cell phone information, as well as treatment for visiting friends and family.

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SignatureMD offers patients comprehensive executive physicals, thorough preventative healthcare, same day appointments, on-time extended appointments, house calls, and after-hour availability. These services are normally not provided in standard primary care practices.  

For more information regarding concierge medicine, SignatureMD, or Dr. Kevin Chan, Rejenesis, please visit http://www.SignatureMD.com/chan  or email Dr. Chan at kchan@signaturemd.com. For interviews with Dr. Chan, one of Dr. Chan’s patients, or a SignatureMD doctor, please contact Dr. Chan or Matt Jacobson at matt.jacobson@signaturemd.com.

For some time now, we’ve been talking about the physician shortage that our country is currently plagued with, and concierge medicine might be the solution to this problem. If you think your appointment wait times are long now, just wait until a new healthcare reform bill goes into affect. With millions of newly insured Americans and less and less physicians to treat them, things will get pretty ugly out there.

According to the Wall Street Journal, America will find itself at a shortage of 125,000 primary care physicians over the next 15 years. This doesn’t bode well for the fact that we only graduate 27,000 new primary care physicians per year. The Wall Street Journal goes on to say that we already are short 16,000 physicians in 2010, and with the healthcare reform bill just around the corner, that could mean huge problems for the newly insured.

There are quite a few issues to this primary care physician crisis; one being the doctor’s yearly income, as speciailist make far more than primary care physicians, another being their schooling. The government actually runs a cap on the amount of residency positions available across the country, and that cap is limiting the amount of new physicians that can finish their schooling.

Well, this all may be about to change. While there still is a cap on residency positions available, more medical schools than ever before are opening or about to open. Not since the 1970’s has so many institutions promised to offer new medical schools, 23 to be exact.

Some schools, such as the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, will aim to train doctors who will treat patients in more disadvantaged urban and rural areas, rather than in more well-to-do areas, reports the New York Times.  – FierceHealthCare.com

According to this HealthCare article, institutions around the nation are hoping to graduate 30% more medical students every year, which would greatly help that 125,000 physician deficit we will be facing in the next 15 years. With the new schools come new opportunities for students who in the past have chosen to study abroad. Now, they can  stay at home, learn the practice at home, and spend time with mentors at home.

Supporters of the expansion say that having more doctors will improve care, by getting doctors to urban and rural areas where they are needed, by shifting care to primary and family practice physicians rather than expensive specialists, and by reducing long waits for people to see a doctor and get the care they need. – NewYorkTimes.com

If you are tired of the long wati times and want a market based solution that give you the vip treatment, consider concierge medicine and http://www.SignatureMD.com.