All About PENINSULA DOCTOR Concierge Medicine - A Convenient Option | Page 5

CONCIERGE MEDICINE IS
CONVENIENT FOR SENIOR
CITIZENS
• Senior citizens, some of whom are unable to visit a doctor for one or more reasons such as
they may be incapacitated, will accept this Concierge Medicine option. Possibly they cannot
walk or may be permanently disabled and in a wheelchair. Also, some of these patients
require special transport etc.to visit a physician. In this case some patient care by telephone
is much more convenient. Many concierge medicine practices offer patient visits with an
annual fee of around $150 a month. Take the case where a patient is in an old age or frail care
home. Many of these facilities do not have permanent doctors on their staff able to issue a
prescription or scheduled medication from a drug store. The concierge doctor is able to visit
the patient in the case of a higher scheduled drug to ensure that the drug is required, after
which they communicate by email or simply by telephone.
• Concierge medicine is often more attractive to patients as doctors can spend more time with
each individual patient. These physicians see or visit, in all probability, around 10 patients a
day, whereas in primary care that would not be practical as the doctor or practice would lose
out. These physicians who bill their services only when seeing a patient in their rooms, need
to see 20-25 patients a day to cover expenses, whereas the concierge physician is paid a
retainer by dozens of patients on a monthly basis.