Healthcare Usa

Healthcare Boutiques (luxury healthcare or Retainer practices (concierge)): suggest a new perspective to unravel the healthcare issues in the USA. With developing impatience, dissatisfaction and discontentment in patients and physicians and high cost of health care and other similar factors are leading to the development of health boutique concepts and these practices are flourishing because these are more patient-centered and enhance both patient and physician satisfaction.

Retainer practices are the membership programs where patients pay an annual/ monthly membership fee for the healthcare services. It started in mid 1990’s, the membership fees includes all the services provided directly by the physicians or the healthcare facility. It limits the number of patients and provides augmented access to the physician and it does not bill insurance or Medicare. They cover primary care services which are not covered in health insurance plans.[4]

Healthcare providers like physicians have started accepting this new model of healthcare because it provides them to spend more time with their patients and treating them in a better way. Earlier, this model was for

higher class of population but now it is attracting middle class society who can afford to pay for their healthcare & is more like a personalized healthcare[1]. Patient pays annual healthcare fee $1500 and gets the access to his physician throughout the year, for longer appointments, annual checkups and preventive care, newsletters, wellness programs, nutritional planning, house calls etc., which patients are willing to pay. The doctor working for this type of facility follows the protocol where he has to be available for all the emergencies, providing equal level of healthcare to patients regardless of membership status, and allows patient to opt out if he wants to, without penalty.[5]

Huge amount of dollars are spent on healthcare which can be controlled to a limit in retainer concierge.

This kind of...