The future of outpatient internal medicine

You are quite correct. As president of SIMPD, the Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design, the professional society open to all concierge and other direct practice doctors I want to confirm that the reason health care is so fragmented and disrupted today is the lack of excellent primary care America once had. That fact in large part results from the devaluation of primary care and its extremely low pay status under the third party and Medicare dominated payment system we now suffer under

The concept of “medical home” is a critical one. Every American needs one, a place they can access top notch primary care immediately and fully like one can access a concerned family member. And they need to buy that home directly, not with other people’s money. When they do so the cost can be very low to the patient and the benefits very high to patient, primary care doctor and society.

The only payer willing and able to pay what a medical home will cost is the patient. Interest in concierge medicine is therefore rapidly growing. Starting with the first such practice about twelve years ago in Seattle and growing exponentially, there are now thousands of such practices in the USA, some are associated with franchises though most are independent. No mater what the government does, that is where the action will be in the future as our numbers grow from the current thousands to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Direct practice doctors and those who wish to adopt the direct practice model can join the society and get many benefits including up to 55% discounts on malpractice insurance, practice marketing help, national care networks and many other services. Our society is rapidly growing its membership. Direct practice doctors have much more time with their patients, make a better living, and virtually never get sued. That is why we get huge malpractice insurance discounts.

Patients can go to SIMPD’s web site at http://www.simpd.org for information and to find such a doctor in their own community at the “find a physician” link. This is the ideal way for patients to get personalized, prompt, excellent primary medical care in a unhurried, pleasant setting. Money is actually saved on patient care in such practices because emergency room visits and hospitalizations are drastically reduced due to of the personalized, immediate, detailed care we deliver. The cost of concierge care, which averages about $150 per month, can be as low as $40 per month. This is affordable for most Americans, while the fragmented primary care most are now getting through employers or government third party interference in the doctor patient relationship is penny wise and pound foolish.

SIMPD believes most Americans can eventually be cared for in such direct “medical home” practices resulting in far better care. This will result in lower overall cost and a return of interest in primary care by students who now shun the field as undervalued, underpaid and undesirable compared with other medical specialties which for the same or lower levels of training and effort often pay double and tripple what primary care pays inside the insurance system.

If any of you have further interest please contact me through the SIMPD web site. I answer all emails through that site personally.

Thomas W. LaGrelius, MD, FAAFP President, SIMPD http://www.simpd.org
Owner, SPFC Torrance, CA http://www.skyparkpfc.com