Doctors
- Allopathic physicians (MD)
- Osteopathic physicians (DO)
- Dentists (DDS/DDM)
- Podiatrists (DPM)
- Psychologists (PhD/PsyD/EdD)
- Chiropractors (DC)
- Optometrists (OD)
Topic Outline
Resources
Organizations
- See Doctors under What’s What in Health Policy, Health Sector, Health Care Work Force.
Links
- Concierge medicine
- The traditional family doctor today often carries a patient load of several thousand people at once—the average is anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 patients for most general practitioners. With such a high volume of patients, just getting in to see the doctor can sometimes take several days or even weeks of advance planning to schedule an appointment, and once you arrive for your appointment you won’t get to see the doctor for very long. Concierge doctors generally reduce their patient volume to about 10 to 20 percent of what a traditional doctor carries, which means they can often guarantee same-day or next-day appointments for patients.
- The annual fees vary widely, from $600 to $5,000 per year for an individual, with the lower annual fees being in addition to the usual fees for each service and the higher annual fees including most services.
- According to the American Academy of Private Physicians,there are reportedly 3,500 private doctors in the concierge service today nationwide compared to 700 doctors 5 years ago.