I have been asked to review a product, “Concierge Medicine” offered at MDVIP.com. This is rather timely given my last post, expressing my less than satisfying experience with my OB practice.

So on to this concierge medicine. What does it offer me as a patient? There are some things that I found appealing. First of all MDVIP doctors limit their practice to 600 patients. (The site claims that the typical physician had 2500 patients.) Because of this limit they are able to spend more time with the patient, and the patient can make same-day or next-day appointments. You also have your doctor’s cell phone number, eliminating the need for busy signals, answering services, and annoying medical receptionists who can’t really tell you anything useful. And it’s nice to be able to make the appointment when you are actually sick.

Another thing they offer is the MDVIP physical. This includes:

? an extensive risk factor assessment that incorporates family history, patient history and lifestyle analysis
? screenings related to mental status
? screenings related to exercise, nutrition and sleep
? screenings related to vision and hearing
? pulmonary function testing
? comprehensive laboratory testing
? EKG

Okay, I could probably do without a mental status assessment, but I like the comprehensiveness of this. As someone who sifts through medical data on a regular basis for my patients, I am always curious about what my data would show. (Are my electrolytes in order? Is my pulmonary functioning normal? What does my EKG show?)

One of my favorite things about this service is the personalized website. This gives you the ability to organize all of your health information and health data from the physical all in one place. I hate trying to chase down lab results from doctors. I remember one time a doctor ordered a CBC on me and I requested that she send me a copy of the results. I told her that I sometimes had a low hematocrit and so was interested in following up on that. After she received the CBC results she sent me a letter in the mail that said this and only this:

“Your hematocrit was normal.”

Um, yeah. So you went to all the trouble of actually sending me a piece of mail and yet you can’t tell me what the actual number was? Totally frustrating.

So what could be the downside to this nirvana of healthcare delivery? In a word: Price. I called the 800 number and was told that for the physicians in my area there would be a yearly annual fee of $1500. This could be paid quarterly. It could also be paid with a health savings account (meaning it’s tax-free). I think this price is a little steep and probably wouldn’t pay it myself. I asked the customer service rep what the fee pays for and his reply was the lab work and diagnostics that you receive at your MDVIP physical. He also said that part of this fee goes to the doctors, because they have to offset the cost of limiting their practice to 600 patients.

My overall impression? I would consider Concierge Health to be a luxury item. It sounds like a good product but only if you can afford it.

(Discloser: this post is a paid review)