New York Metro Physicians Joining Concierge Choice Physicians Exemplify National Trend
 
(Long Island, N.Y.) The nation’s traditional primary care physician model – one typified by private, independent, and small groups of physicians – is undergoing a drastic change. Recent surveys note that more than 50 percent of primary care physicians may soon retire, offer concierge or cash-only practices, become employees of corporations (as opposed to the traditional private practice model), or become locum tenens, or temporary physicians.[1]
 
Expanding choice – specifically practice models that give physicians more autonomy and security – is one way to encourage quality primary care physicians to stay in practice says Wayne Lipton, founder of Concierge Choice Physicians (CCP), the pioneer in the growing hybrid model of primary care practice. 
 
Based in Rockville Centre, New York, CCP is the largest provider of hybrid programs and the second largest company providing concierge practice management services in the nation. Physicians offering CCP’s hybrid model care for more than 300,000 traditional and concierge patients – more than any other full concierge model company in the nation.  Concierge Choice is the only major practice management services company to offer a hybrid option.  Hybrid models give the small percentage of patients who want a concierge option that choice, while ensuring physicians can continue to see other patients – including those on Medicare or in other government or private plans – as before.
 
Finding ways to encourage primary care physicians to remain in practice is important. Shortages of physicians will increase by more than 50 percent over previous estimates, to as many as 91,500 by 2020, according to American Medical News.  Stagnating or diminishing reimbursement combined with increasing costs, burdensome administrative requirements, as well as uncertainty about healthcare reform are just some of the reasons physicians are leaving traditional practices.
 
While concierge care is viewed as a way to protect the traditional physician-patient relationship, full-model concierge programs have been perceived as excluding those who can’t afford it, leading some physicians to avoid the model.  “Most physicians remain very loyal to their patients and are looking for ways to protect that relationship, despite the challenges they face today,” says Lipton. “We don’t see a lot of physicians rushing to full model concierge programs; we do see a growing interest in programs that provide choices for physicians and patients.”
 
Kenneth A. Nordlicht, M.D., who heads a six physician medical group, Select Medicine in New Hyde Park, New York agrees.  “Our group recently began offering a hybrid model to patients,” Nordlicht says.  “We’d resisted full-model concierge programs for years because it was important to care for all of our patients, not just those that could afford a monthly fee. This hybrid concierge model gives us the freedom to see all of our patients, while also offering concierge care to those patients who want it.”
 
With the addition of Select Medicine, as well as new groups in Manhattan, Connecticut and New Jersey, CCP now has 30 physicians, including geriatricians and specialists providing primary care in the New York metropolitan area alone and more than 180 physicians nationwide. Currently, the New York metropolitan area; Southern California; and the Maryland, DC, Northeast Virginia corridor have the largest numbers of hybrid concierge physicians.
 
“The hybrid model of concierge medicine provides a welcome alternative practice model to physicians who want to protect their relationship with their patients,” said Nina Fallick, M.D., an internal medicine specialist in Manhattan.  “It gives us some economic security in today’s market, while allowing us to practice medicine in a way that is best for all of our patients.”
 
Under the CCP program, membership fees cover services typically not covered by plans and government programs. Patients can obtain same-day appointments, convenient scheduling and often 24-hour direct phone and email access to their physicians. The fee averages about $160 a month. Children up to age 25 may participate under their parents’ program at no additional charge.  Typically, about 50 to 150 patients opt to join the concierge program and the physician continues to see all other patients as before.
 
For information on participating physicians in the New York metropolitan metro, visit www.choice.md/locations.
 
About Concierge Choice Physicians
Concierge Choice Physicians™ (CCP) is a private company in Rockville Centre, New York.  CCP pioneered the hybrid model of concierge medicine, which enables doctors to practice both traditional and concierge-style medicine within a single practice.  Under a hybrid model, typically about 50 to 150 patients choose to join the concierge model. CCP also offers limited full-model concierge programs. The company works with more than 180 medical practices in 18 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit www.choice.md or call 877-888-5590.