A recent article in the NY Times punctures the myth that while American healthcare remains costlier than that of other nations, it can be promptly accessed. According to the article, patients had to wait six days or more for primary care appointments, even for sick care. Significantly, expensive procedures such as a Botox injection, knee replacement or an MRI were available quickly, while more urgent but less lucrative care was more likely to be scheduled weeks out, such as for diabetics needing medication adjustments or an elderly patient needing a cardiology consultation. It is an issue that resonates with our Special Docs primary care physicians, who turned to the concierge model in order to prevent these unhealthy scenarios and enable a much more beneficial focus on prevention and wellness. In fact, many Special Docs feature a “no-wait waiting room” to further emphasize the advantages of their personalized medical practices to patients who are increasingly unaccepting of the “new normal” in healthcare.
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