Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / How Flexible Concierge Models Are Supporting Physician Sustainability and Patient Experience

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How Flexible Concierge Models Are Supporting Physician Sustainability and Patient Experience · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Hi, everyone. This is Chanel Banger with Becker's
• 0:02
  Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning in
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  to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. Today, we're
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  gonna talk about how flexible concierge models are
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  supporting physician sustainability
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  and patient experience.
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  Joining me for today's discussion is Keith Algort,
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  CEO of Concierge Choice Physicians,
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  and Timothy Siebert, the chief administrative officer and
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  executive director of primary care at Weill Cornell
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  Medicine.
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  Keith and Tim, thank you so much for
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  joining me today.
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  Good morning. Good morning.
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  Perfect. Well, it's great to have you. And
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  to get us started out, Tim and Keith,
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  can you each briefly introduce yourselves and share
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  a bit about the work you're doing in
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  health care today?
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  Sure. I'm Tim Siebert. I'm the chief administrative
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  officer for primary care at Weill Cornell Medicine
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  and executive director of the Primary Care Initiative,
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  which is a venture between Weill Cornell Medicine
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  and New York Presbyterian Hospital
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  with a focus on expanding primary care.
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  I have a team of about 475.
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  We have 15 outpatient practices
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  that serve mostly the Manhattan communities, but we
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  have, practices in Brooklyn Heights, Long Island City,
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  Southampton, and Boca Raton, Florida as well. I
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  oversee the expansion efforts, the finance, and
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  operations
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  of the department.
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  Hi. I'm Keith Ellegard. I'm the CEO at
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  Concierge Choice Physicians,
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  and we work
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  with physicians, group practices, and large health systems
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  across the country in bringing concierge medical programs,
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  to life.
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  Got it. Thank you so much for those
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  introductions.
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  And now getting into it a bit, from
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  your vantage point, what are some of the
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  biggest financial and workforce pressures
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  shaping how leaders are thinking about care delivery
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  right now?
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  Sure. So reimbursements
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  are always, an issue.
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  So where the physicians are sort of doing
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  more work and getting paid less,
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  And by offering hybrid concierge program, we're able
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  to increase
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  revenue both to the physicians and the departments
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  that offer this, which offsets that the issues
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  with the lower reimbursement.
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  And, Keith, did you have anything that you
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  wanted to add to that?
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  Yeah. Similarly, it's, it's that combination of,
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  reimbursement
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  pressure, which in turn turns into pressure on
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  the physicians, which in turn
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  affects, at times,
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  the the experience for patients and what the
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  day can look like. And, again, I think
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  everyone's looking for ways to kind of improve
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  that or enhance that and find solutions so
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  that patients, physicians, and the systems are all
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  successful.
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  Thank you so much. And now moving forward,
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  so we're hearing more organizations explore flexible concierge
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  or membership based programs as one way to
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  address some of those challenges.
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  Tim, from the perspective of an academic organization,
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  what prompted the conversation around concierge medicine at
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  Weill Cornell, and what problems were you hoping
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  it could solve?
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  So I think there were a couple of
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  things, a couple of factors. One being patient
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  demand. We had patients that were requesting it
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  for quite a while.
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  And our physicians.
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  And it became a strategy, actually, to retain
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  our patient population, or at least a subset
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  of our patient population,
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  and our physicians that wanted this opportunity to
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  have an enhanced practice model along with their
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  traditional model.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And now
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  back to Keith. One concern leaders often raise
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  is whether introducing a concierge option requires major
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  structural change.
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  How do flexible concierge programs actually fit within
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  existing practice structures and governance,
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  particularly
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  in large health systems or medical groups?
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  Yeah. So concierge programs
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  fit well. I think Tim and what they
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  did at Weill Cornell is a a great
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  example of that amongst many others where the
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  flexibility really allows
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  a team
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  to put in place a program that matches
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  their current workflow, their expectations.
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  You know, every health system is they have
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  a brand, they have an image, they have
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  a way that they present themselves, and that's
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  why patients come to them versus
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  others that are available. And so having these
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  programs just it creates
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  a variety of experiences
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  for all the patients they serve in a
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  community.
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  If you think about kind of the spectrum
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  of patients that they may serve, you have
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  people towards all all aspects of what they
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  need and being able to bring a solution
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  for that need in house just strengthens
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  those organizations.
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  Thank you so much. That's very helpful context.
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  And now back to Tim.
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  So once a concierge option is in place,
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  what impact have you seen on physician satisfaction
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  in the patient experience?
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  And then how does offering membership as an
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  optional service where patients can either remain traditional
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  patients
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  or choose to become members
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  influence those relationships?
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  So I'll say that, you know, we've always
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  had great patient satisfaction scores, and and our
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  physicians, the ones that offer the concierge model
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  and ones that do not get scored very
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  highly and and great relationships again with their
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  patients.
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  I think when we instituted
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  concierge medicine, I think we did it very
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  deliberately and carefully
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  and explained to the traditional patients that were
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  not interested in joining concierge that the way
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  that they were treated prior to this program
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  going in is the same way they'll be
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  treated at this point,
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  which is a 100% true. And so I
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  think it's it's really something that those patients
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  that were looking for this type of service,
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  if you will, received it, so they are
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  super happy. Right? It's it's something that they've
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  they've asked for and they've gotten.
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  And the patients that are part of the
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  traditional
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  program, you know, remain very satisfied with with
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  that as well.
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  Absolutely. Now, Keith, how does that compare with
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  what you're seeing across your broader partner base?
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  And what advice would you offer leaders who
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  may be in the early stages of exploring
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  flexible concierge programs?
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  Sure. I'd tell you what what Tim shared
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  is is
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  very accurate. Right? The the focus is again,
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  this concierge offering is for a small subset
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  of the patient base that these large systems
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  are are reaching, and the key is to
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  always ensure that people understand
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  that there's no degradation in service for everyone
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  else. It's another offering. Right? And an offering
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  that you don't have to, like, take away
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  from one to give to the other. It's
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  about maintaining the high levels of of care
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  and standards
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  and experience for everybody that's already in place.
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  And this is just an enhancement for those
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  that want a little bit more and different
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  in a way that's not covered by insurance.
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  And then advice for for systems that are
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  looking to do this, you have patient interest.
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  We see it across the country. There is
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  no pocket anywhere where this is not a
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  topic of conversation in some way, shape, or
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  form. You have physicians
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  who are interested in some kind of variation
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  on what they're doing, right, at some phase
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  in their career.
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  And then you have health systems who have
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  a responsibility
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  to, you know, satisfy both patients and physicians
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  and generate revenue that keeps the doors open,
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  that expands the kinds of services they could
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  offer in the community.
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  Unfortunately, you look at the the news now
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  and you see a lot of
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  hospital systems closing,
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  being bought out by others. There's there's a
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  a a loss of availability in that. And
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  so having this variety really enhances and grows
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  these systems, and and that's a big responsibility
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  they have, and they have to look at
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  every way possible
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  to maintain and grow their reach and
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  and ability to serve patients.
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  Got it. I love the way that you
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  frame that. Well, Keith, Tim, I wanna thank
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  you for your time today. But before I
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  let you go, is there anything else that
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  listeners should know?
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  I think for health systems,
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  sometimes you have to step back and and
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  look at something like this as which is
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  new and, you know, could be controversial in
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  a sense.
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  But sort of what Keith just said is
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  generating this incremental revenue for really services that
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  still happen and would happen without it. You're
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  getting that revenue, which will then
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  offset another type of expense you have in
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  the practice, or you're able to do things
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  like
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  fund a program
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  that necessarily wouldn't be funded by either the
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  school or the hospital that you're affiliated with.
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  And that could be something like a Medicare
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  program
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  where you get those additional funds to help
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  support it even though you know the reimbursement
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  won't. And, and I think that could be
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  very helpful.
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  That's great. And Keith? Yeah. I'd say to
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  tag on to what Tim said, this is
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  not about, like, exclusivity
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  and then exclusivity with the dollars that that
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  program generates. This is about availability
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  and those dollars being used to enhance availability
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  for all. We have another client where
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  they take a portion of the concierge fees,
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  and it automatically goes to the development of
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  a Medicaid
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  facility. And it's it's the best marriage of
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  two parts of the system, two parts of
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  who they serve, and making those experiences appropriate
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  and better and increasing that that access availability
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  service level across the board.
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  Great. Well, that's a great note to end
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  on. Keith, Tim, I wanna thank you for
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  your time and insights today. And we also
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  wanna thank our podcast sponsor, Concierge Choice Physicians.
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  You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's
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  Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.