Would You Want to be 1 of 600 Patients or 1 of 2500 Patients?
Disclosure: This is a commissioned review through ReviewMe
Which patient would you rather be - 1 of 600 patients that your doctor sees, or 1 of 2500 patients that your doctor sees? That’s the value - and selling proposition from a company called MDVIP. MDVIP offers a “concierge healthcare” service that contracts with physicians who have agreed to limit their practice to only 600 patients. This allows doctors to spend the adequate amount of time with each patient, give each patient a thorough examination, and allow for time to answer a patient’s questions without the patient feeling rushed.
I was intrigued with this model of delivering medical care, because it is focused on prevention as well as strengthening the patient-doctor relationship that requires what most doctors today cannot afford to give: time. Although this sounds like a model that should be the norm for all patients and all doctors, MDVIP is a supplemental plan to your regular healthcare, which means you will need to also purchase regular insurance plans in addition to a membership with MDVIP. What MDVIP membership covers are preventive care that is not covered by your regular insurance. I’m not sure what the annual membership fee is, because this was not disclosed or made clear from the website.
A service like MDVIP can be useful for those who have mental health issues including depression and bipolar disorder, in that MDVIP preventive screening can help rule out physical factors that can give rise to mental symptoms. One of the most important screening test that doctors should perform when suspecting mental illness like depression or bipolar disorder is to rule out physical factors that can be causing depression-like or mania-like symptoms. Only after this is ruled out can a doctor assess the psychological issues behind a cluster of symptoms. In today’s healthcare environment, most diagnoses for depression and bipolar disorder are made in the primary care setting, where a doctor may spend at most ten or fifteen minutes with a patient. This is grossly inadequate to take a thorough medical history and conduct a physical exam and rule out these organic causes. The reality of a medical “business” is that once a quick diagnosis is made, the doctor then writes a prescription and moves to the next patient. There is often a quota in medical practices to see a certain number of patients so the doctor can break even and keep the clinical practice operating.
Of course, only time will tell how well this model of healthcare delivery can survive in the long run. From the testimonials that I’ve read from the website, MDVIP may be fostering a bond of doctor-patient relationship that we all want to see return to healthcare.
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