MD VIP-Anyone Familiar With This????

Question

My husband & I just attended a meeting given by our primary care physician-he's joining the MD VIP network.....downsizing to only 600 patients, first come first serve sign up....oh, there's a 'membership fee' patients must pay yearly....1,500.00 per head on top of what we are paying out to our health insurance...and he will only see patients in the membership....for this we get a 'state of the art' complete physical once a year, his pager no, his availablity 24-7, not waiting in the waiting room...and our own heath care-website where we can review our health progress.....all in the name of preventative care....but we must continue with our health insurance as that covers office visits, yada yada........

We already get a anual physical paid thru the insurance company..seems to me we are really paying for the privilige of being treated by this dr....the rest is unnessary fluff.....we are looking for another dr in our health ins, network....anyone familiar with this????? Scam?

Answer 1

I haven't heard of it before but a bit of looking made me realize this is a bad idea, but for a good reason.

First I would not go with it. You can get good service without this. If he is close to retiring anyway, you'd still have to find a new doctor soon.

Second I would check with your health insurance company, as according to the way insurance works he is NOT ALLOWED to charge other than what your insurance says he  can.

A bit of looking showed this to be a "boutique" service. Basically, for the wealthy for whom 1500 a year is not a big deal. The guy who started this has been in trouble for another company he started. It's like a franchise, the guy who started this gets a chunk of that money.  It's not all, and maybe not most, going to the doctor.

I worked in medical billing and the reason this looks good to doctors is that most medical insurance is horrid. Ex. getting paid 67cents on a $10 charge. Thats what health insurance does. Plus they make it extremely difficult to get the money you are entitled to, even if you do everything right. That's why I had a job, to sort through all the paperwork the insurance companies would send trying to keep from paying it. So I am just another amount of money gone for the doctor because the medical insurance is so awful. No, they are not poor, but these people worked hard, paid huge amounts of money to schools for a very long time to become doctors. They deserve the earnings to commiserate with the work they have put through.

The reason the doctors accept the ins, is because everyone else does, and if you take no insurance, you will have very few patients. If all doctors stopped taking ins, the insurance would have to actually perform the services they are getting the money for from you and me. Most of the money you spend does not go to the doctor's.

And medical school does not give you any information on medical insurance, coding, billing etc.

So, the idea of seeing less patients for the same money is appealing, they can spend more time with each patient, and that is good. But that does not mean that you will receive bad care elsewhere, and it would still be unethical not to provide proper treatment. As always you need to find a doctor that is good for you, that you are comfortable telling everything to, that you can trust, and seems like they know what they are doing. Sometimes that takes trial and error. Doctors are people, idiots can show up in every profession.

The medical treatment that you get from VIP doctors or non Vip doctors should not be any different. But the bedside manner and time allowed might be better.

And yes, I think Universal Healthcare would be the best thing to happen to the US. I might be out of a job, but the good outweighs the bad.

Answer 2

I was recently abandoned by my physician of 15 years because the group he is with decided to switch over to this form of elitist healthcare.  In this case, the greedy third party outsider that brought this all about is MDVIP.  If I wanted to continue on with my physician, I would have to sign a contract and pay MDVIP $1,500.00 per year simply to have access to my doctor.  My primary insurance company would still be forced to pay for all office visits, lab tests and any in-house procedures.  In retrospect, I never needed a third party outsider to get quality care from my physician and I’m not about to line the pockets of some greed driven outsider who has absolutely no interest in my well being.  This concept is very unethical and patients are the real losers under this particular business model.  Medicare and all insurance companies should refuse reimbursing physicians who adopt this approach to patient care.

Answer 3

omg this is such bs.. not for nothing  doctors already make money and we are all paying the health care . why pay  twice .. my doc is getting ready to  do the md vip. and we have been going there for 10 plus years. and now we have to find some one new.. that  blows. and as far as the "well it is for you to have personal service. i was already getiing good service . i am not a doctor and i dont expect too much from them but it should be a a personal service . at least i think so .. we go to them about everything  the get to know us and our families and that is already personal. and it is not fair that we have to come to have to pay extra to have personal service  to the person that is taken care of u. this is a health care issued that should be asked on the debate for prez.  what  a scam... the rich get richer and the rest of us are f#@%..