salaries of concierge docs to very wealthy people

[Kamban]

It'd take more than $150k/month for me to sell my soul and start doing stuff with no evidence behind it.

How about $10M/ year?. It worked well for Dr. Oz, :-) , based on the outrage we saw in the other thread.

[CordMcNally]

How about $10M/ year?. It worked well for Dr. Oz, :-) , based on the outrage we saw in the other thread.

$10M would probably do it depending on what was asked of me.

[Sigrid]

The CEO of my wife's company is fond of saying, "Don't say you don't have a price. Everyone has a price. Just make sure you set your price really high."

I'd like to think I wouldn't compromise my ethics for $10M a year, but honestly I probably would. It's really easy to justify things to yourself for $10M a year.

[VentAlarm]

I feel like there's probably some awful medicine being practiced in the concierge arena.

there’s truly awful medicine being practiced in lots of tiny hospitals.

[CordMcNally]

there’s truly awful medicine being practiced in lots of tiny hospitals.

Yes, but I assume the percentage of bad medicine is higher in concierge care given it’s driven more by the patients. There’s also a lot of rockstars at tiny and/or rural hospitals.

[JBME]

No way 1 million/year is enough to be at the beck and call of people who think they are more important than they really are. Would seriously need to be in the 5 million range for me.

you'd be so burned out by the end of a single year. But since we're a financially savy lot here, maybe grinding/not living for a single year to get $5m might be worth it? Of course, you'd lose a ton to taxes so maybe it's not worth it after all

[CordMcNally]

The CEO of my wife's company is fond of saying, "Don't say you don't have a price. Everyone has a price. Just make sure you set your price really high."

I'd like to think I wouldn't compromise my ethics for $10M a year, but honestly I probably would. It's really easy to justify things to yourself for $10M a year.

I think there’s also a difference between practicing bad medicine and illegal/unethical medicine. $10M for bad medicine would be a fairly easy call, I think.

[gap55u]

My parents saw a concierge doc and got unnecessary labs and a bunch of tests that weren’t indicated (annual carotid screening, annual bone density by heel testing in office that the practice rented, AAA screening etc). Then when a potentially very serious issue came up in c/spine MRI, relatively inaccessible and I was care coordinating. I hadn’t realized the crappy care until I was asking questions. They are with a traditional practice now. But being a PCP is really hard and not very well compensated in the current system — so I get the lure of concierge. I don’t know that I would recommend medicine to one of my kids, and while there are aspects of being a PCP I love, the messaging, coordination, 50 cc charts from consultants daily, time pressures, comp are all a grind. (Off topic: specialists, when I have to scroll through 8 pages to get to a 4 line a/p it irritates me. I love the few who apso instead of soap)

oh, and despite all that complaining I just did, the biggest complaint the one person I know who does concierge has is the constant texts and calls. Literally never has time off.

[MPMD]

No way 1 million/year is enough to be at the beck and call of people who think they are more important than they really are. Would seriously need to be in the 5 million range for me.

eh, you say that but i don't know if it's true.

i don't think there's any evidence that this guy's pts "think they are more important than they really are." really they are just people who a) want a concierge doctor and b) can afford one.

i am fairly well paid for what i do (academic EM) but $1M is much, much more than i make.

also keep in mind that this guy has a limited number of patients and very deep relationships with them. he also has the ability to not renew his "contract" with difficult or abusive people.

for arguments sake let's say you are a board certified primary care doctor working in Seattle and you get a chance to take on ~1500 powerful and influential patients, be available to them, and earn 4X the average salary for what you are doing already? i don't think everyone would pass that up.

this guy is far from crazy, he's an ultra-intelligent, conscientious, dedicated primary doc who now just happens to get offered front row seats to the orchestra and box tickets to professional sports games on the reg. not a bad gig if you ask me.

[AR]

Maybe WCI should publish an article on these docs as well? They did really well financially.

Now that would be a fantastic article!

[AR]

No way 1 million/year is enough to be at the beck and call of people who think they are more important than they really are. Would seriously need to be in the 5 million range for me.

I think is probably highly dependent on how young, single, and poor you are. In my 20s, 1 million would have been enough. In my 40s, 5 million sounds about right, but I'd only do it for about a year.

[resident_1]

I see prescribers do this in the community for much much less. My favorite recent one was a pt seeing an aprn who was giving her opiates as well as tid Xanax and Ativan and klonopin. Reported to the board and apparently they had been practicing without a license for a number of years. I bet they weren't making anywhere close to 150k/ month.

This regimen is missing Adderall and low dose Seroquel.

[Otolith]

I don't think I would assume all these docs are bad and practice bad medicine.

[Sampter]

eh, you say that but i don't know if it's true.

i don't think there's any evidence that this guy's pts "think they are more important than they really are." really they are just people who a) want a concierge doctor and b) can afford one.

i am fairly well paid for what i do (academic EM) but $1M is much, much more than i make.

also keep in mind that this guy has a limited number of patients and very deep relationships with them. he also has the ability to not renew his "contract" with difficult or abusive people.

for arguments sake let's say you are a board certified primary care doctor working in Seattle and you get a chance to take on ~1500 powerful and influential patients, be available to them, and earn 4X the average salary for what you are doing already? i don't think everyone would pass that up.

this guy is far from crazy, he's an ultra-intelligent, conscientious, dedicated primary doc who now just happens to get offered front row seats to the orchestra and box tickets to professional sports games on the reg. not a bad gig if you ask me.

My comment on "think they are more important than they really are" was based on sounded like these patients contact their concierge doctor during evenings, etc.

Now, if I read your original comment wrong and these patients for the vast majority of the time were respectful of the doctors time and only contacted them on evenings or weekends for true emergencies, then I apologize.

Also, yes 1M is a great salary if most of time it is 8-5 M-F. It is not a good salary if I'm getting called/contacted every evening/weekend, etc IMO. Also, perks is not worth it as well in that situation.

Cash paying patients on average I've seen tend to be more likely to be on legal uppers and downers as well. Are you going to say no to an Adderall/Xanax prescription if your private client is paying you a bunch of money?

[MPMD]

My comment on "think they are more important than they really are" was based on sounded like these patients contact their concierge doctor during evenings, etc.

Now, if I read your original comment wrong and these patients for the vast majority of the time were respectful of the doctors time and only contacted them on evenings or weekends for true emergencies, then I apologize.

Also, yes 1M is a great salary if most of time it is 8-5 M-F. It is not a good salary if I'm getting called/contacted every evening/weekend, etc IMO. Also, perks is not worth it as well in that situation.

Cash paying patients on average I've seen tend to be more likely to be on legal uppers and downers as well. Are you going to say no to an Adderall/Xanax prescription if your private client is paying you a bunch of money?

ha no need to apologize!
i was just pointing out the $1M/year is a lot of money and nothing to sniff at!
i think one of the points of concierge is that you can contact them when you want