Consumer-Driven Health Care, Research Paper Example

Consumer-driven health care is heralded as the wave of the future. Indeed, as technological progress increasingly breaks apart the traditional brick-and-mortar health care delivery model, consumers have more choices regarding how, when, and where they receive medical care. Concierge care is one the most important trends underlining the consumer health trend: Concierge care essentially is a decentralized health care model in which patient’s pay membership fees to a specific clinic (group of doctors) rather than to an insurance company for individual visits; a monthly or annual fee is paid to the doctors for visits, communication, and monitoring of symptoms. Concierge care is important for two reasons: 1) It illustrates the importance demand-side consumer choice in the health care system; 2) It shows how health care delivery (supply-side) is changing to meet individual preferences.

The emergence of concierge care is showing how consumer demand is changing the health care payment system.  Previously, in order to access a doctor’s care, purchase of health insurance was needed.  This system, however, was expensive and wasteful: many individuals purchased insurance coverage for services they never received; at the same time, some patients could not get appointments quickly or have access to their doctor. Concierge care emerged as a business model to meet this unmet need: individuals would pay a fee for a doctor they could communicate with at any time and could make appointments much easier. This is one critical element of the consumer health movement.

The other element is how doctors are changing on the supply side.  Whereas many doctors previously associated themselves with taking certain insurance and belonging to affiliated doctor’s groups, the concierge model is changing how doctor’s think about delivering care. Indeed, rather than conceptualizing care as an insurance-reimbursed visit, concierge care is opening greater communication between patients and doctors, and the ability to manage conditions outside of the traditional clinic setting.

Sources

Brennan, T.A. (2005). Concierge care and the future of general internal medicine. The Journal of General Internal Medicine. 20(12): 1190.

GAO (2005). Concierge care characteristics and considerations for Medicare. Available at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05929.pdf.

Leonard, D. (2012).  Is concierge care the future of health care? Businessweek. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/is-concierge-medicine-the-future-of-health-care.

Linz, A.J. (2005). Impact of concierge care on healthcare and clinical practice. The Journal of American Osteopathic Association. 105(11), 515-520.

Brennan, T.A. (2005). Concierge care and the future of general internal medicine. The Journal of General Internal Medicine. 20(12): 1190.