Jay Parkinson is a doctor in Williamsburg who does e-visits. Think you need stitches? Send him a picture and he’ll advise via video chat/IM/email/etc. It’s a pretty fascinating approach to medicine and I’m curious how well it’ll scale. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t play nice with health insurance. I’m having a hard time imagining who will pay a annual fee for this who wouldn’t have health insurance. Don’t get me wrong, I’d *love* to have a personal doctor but the cost would be prohibitive for me. And it’s all fine and well to do this instead of traditional health if you’re relatively healthy, but if things go dreadfully wrong, you’re going to want health insurance. Does a practice like this discourage young people from being responsible in maintaining health insurance? Anyhow, I’m fascinated. Cuz goddess knows I hate clinics and hospitals.
(Tx Ryan Shaw)
..and he paid part off some of his med school debt by loading iPods?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/jobs/23IPOD.html?ex=1264136400&en=5a09f6a27d799c07&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
His fee is $500 per year.
If I had a fulltime job (and the health insurance that comes with it) I’d definitely pay the $500
What do you call a “personal doctor”? Do you mean one who only works for you? Maybe you are not in perfect shape, but that’s what a PhD does to you-and unless wearing pink hats is considered a illness, you don’t need a full-time MD? Don’t you have regular check-ups with always the same person? I know I should have gone to see Sicko – but it’s so. . . hmm, imaginative about the French system I just couldn’t.
from http://www.jayparkinsonmd.com/Question24.html
“Q. Ideally, what should I do for my health and financial well-being?
A. I highly recommend a high-deductible health insurance plan coupled with my services. The plan costs about $2600 per year with a $2500 deductible. You are young and healthy. You shouldn’t pay the average $9500 yearly premium for an HMO in NYC. It doesn’t make sense. You don’t use that much healthcare. But you need coverage if you are severely ill or injured. I treat you when you are ill and help you wisely spend your money when you need more than my services. This is about a third of the cost of regular insurance.”
I use a cheap high-deductible plan anyway. But I’m terrified to ever consider going to the doctor. An iPhone, or real health care? I want this.
But will it scale?
The problem isn’t the $500 directly. It’s having to also cover meds (cuz my insurance wouldn’t cover something that an outside doctor prescribed) and referrals (cuz my insurance wouldn’t cover those bills either) and the $150 per visit after 2 visits per year and and and… His plan gets expensive if anything goes wrong.
Off topic, but he’s a wonderful photographer to boot.