The innovation of concierge medical practice has been a frequent topic here, so this recent NY Times article on the development of a low-cost concierge medical practice model caught my eye:

With 31 physicians in San Francisco and New York, [One Medical Group] offers most of the same services provided by personalized “concierge” medical practices, but at a much lower price: $150 to $200 a year.

One Medical Group doctors see at most 16 patients a day; the nationwide average for primary-care physicians is 25. They welcome e-mail communication with patients, for no extra charge. Same-day appointments are routine. And unlike most concierge practices, One Medical accepts a variety of insurance plans, including Medicare. [.  .  .]

.  .  . One Medical is the first to try to carry out such a model on a large scale. It now has several thousand patients and a growth rate of 50 percent a year, fueled largely by word of mouth. Dr. Lee said he planned to open a third office in Manhattan next month and expand to a third large city next year.

It will be interesting to see if this model still works on a larger scale, particularly if less healthy patients use a highly disproportionate amount of doctor time and resources.

However, as this latest disclosure regarding Obamacare reinforces, truly beneficial health care finance reform is more likely to come through innovations such as One Medical Group, not through government-managed overhauls.