FAQs FOR PHYSICIANS

Physicians practicing in the MDVIP membership model can significantly improve their income.* Assuming a similar per patient/per year reimbursement to a traditional practice, MDVIP-affiliated physicians gain a new source of predictable revenue that provides more stability, security and autonomy in a lower volume model. With panel sizes limited to 600 members, physicians enjoy more quality time with patients and less administrative hassles, staffing challenges and overhead costs – resulting in over 90% satisfaction with MDVIP. 

Predict Your Financial Benefit

*Dependent on practice type.

MDVIP believes that closer doctor-patient relationships coupled with more time are the key ingredients for a better healthcare experience, and ultimately better results. Providing every patient the one-on-one time they need with you along with a more comprehensive approach to preventive care is only possible in smaller practices.

If your present patient load has you on the brink of burnout, perhaps contemplating early retirement or leaving medicine altogether, MDVIP offers you a healthier work/life balance and a means to continue doing what you love.

Importantly, our model is backed by evidence-based studies and is on secure legal and regulatory footing.

The most convincing evidence of why MDVIP is the preferred practice model chosen by over a thousand of your primary care colleagues is reported in the annual satisfaction surveys of affiliated physicians. Year over year, MDVIP affiliates are exceedingly satisfied with their decision to join the network and with how our model enables them to meet their professional, personal and financial goals. Furthermore, they consistently rate MDVIP as an ethical, reliable and high-quality organization of which they are proud to be a part. Once you’ve experienced the MDVIP difference, you’ll agree with our affiliated physicians and patients who say they’d never go back to traditional primary care. For many, MDVIP has been life-changing.

While you can attempt to convert your traditional volume practice to a membership-based model yourself, it’s extremely difficult and stressful. Undertaking a transformation involving thousands of patients while continuing to maintain a full-time practice – all on your own – can set the stage for unpredictable results. Since you only get one chance to do it right, there’s too much at stake to rely on anyone other than the experts in the country, MDVIP.

First, MDVIP offers you a thorough, in-depth evaluation and risk assessment to predict your suitability for the model and provide you with data to make an informed decision. Once we agree to work together, MDVIP offers you a medical practice solution that is customized to your needs, your patients’ needs and your market. The breadth of knowledge and the wealth of resources MDVIP commits to each transition have resulted in practice sizes considerably larger than patient membership attained with competing companies. Our experienced MDVIP professionals provide you with operational, marketing, legal, technological and membership support services, training and tools – both during your transition and throughout your tenure as an affiliated physician. And then, we help you finish your career in medicine with what can be a sizable retirement fund.

The role MDVIP plays in legally protecting the model is extremely important. With healthcare being the most regulated industry in the U.S., MDVIP has five in-house legal counsel available to you, along with over 40 law firms on retainer nationally to monitor new state and federal laws being proposed every year. It would be exceedingly challenging and expensive for independent physicians to remain compliant in today’s environment.

Our established relationships with key influencers who promote bipartisan backing of our prevention-focused model supplement MDVIP’s strong legal foundation. These advocacy efforts increase awareness among policy makers that MDVIP is driving impressive health outcomes and saving the healthcare system money – while also achieving unparalleled patient and physician satisfaction.

MDVIP is successful only if our affiliated physicians are successful. Our incentives are aligned. That is why we bear the cost not only of the initial practice evaluation, but also a significant upfront investment to transition you into the model. Founded in 2000, MDVIP has a long history of demonstrating that our model has stood the test of time – it works and it’s reproducible. So when we present you with an affiliation agreement, we’re confident it will work for you, too. And we don’t stop there. We continue investing in the network by bringing affiliated physicians and patients value-added offerings and resources designed to improve the healthcare experience.

You’ve devoted yourself to the needs of your patients. That’s why you need MDVIP – because the risks involved in doing this on your own are substantial.

Under our model, MDVIP-affiliated physicians practice on their own terms seeing 8-10 patients in an unhurried day instead of 20-30, while enjoying the work-life balance they deserve. MDVIP does not interfere with the way you practice medicine but rather acts as a support system for you, your staff and your patients. You maintain your autonomy and have the freedom to run your office independently, control your schedule and even have time to research and get more involved in your patients’ care. MDVIP does not micromanage your practice; you call the shots. But we do provide valuable resources, tools and expert assistance to help you deliver the annual wellness program, delight patients and achieve your goals.

Although MDVIP personalized healthcare is sometimes referred to as concierge medicine, it’s not. Our model goes far beyond “fee-for-access” practices that are rightfully seen as a concierge service only accessible to the wealthy. Patients of MDVIP-affiliated physicians pay a reasonable fee for a defined set of medically-relevant services focused on early detection, prevention and wellness.

The annual patient membership ranges from $1,800 to $2,200 and can be paid quarterly. It covers the yearly MDVIP Wellness Program, which includes an extensive panel of advanced health screenings and diagnostic tests typically not paid for by insurance as part of preventive care. It’s the equivalent of just $5-$6 a day – a valuable investment in a patient’s health and wellness and affordable for people from all walks of life. Many members nationwide are age 65+, and MDVIP-affiliated physicians continue to participate in Medicare and most commercial insurance plans. For employed patients with a health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA), the annual fee is usually reimbursable.

At a time when many people are looking for the best ways to get the most out of their healthcare dollars, MDVIP is an excellent choice. Our model continues to grow in popularity at an exponential pace nationally because it’s the type of care consumers – your patients – want.

First, MDVIP has a proven forecasting formula to determine if you can achieve the practice experience you want for your patients. There is no cost for our evaluation of your practice, and no obligation. We’ve assessed over 5,600 practices encompassing more than 11 million patient records. We’ve surveyed over a million patients by phone. Our methodology to predict practice success has been refined by the brightest minds, including engineers from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and back-tested through regression analysis.

Our proprietary approach is tried and true. More than 1,000 successful medical practice transitions that continue to expand the footprint of our national physician network validate the accuracy of our sophisticated methodology. MDVIP carefully monitors your conversion progress on a daily basis to make sure you’re on course for a successful practice opening.

During your transition, MDVIP specialists are working directly with you, your staff and your patients in your office overseeing a very detailed operational and communications plan. After your affiliated practice opens, a dedicated Practice Development Manager supports you and your employees and serves as your personal liaison to MDVIP connecting you with useful resources, keeping you informed and availing you of unique network opportunities.

Unlike consultants who work with physicians on a limited transactional assignment, MDVIP strives to bring ongoing, enduring value to you and your patients for as long as you want to practice medicine. And then, when the time is right, we help you choreograph and execute a retirement plan that meets your personal and financial needs and the needs of your patients.

In smaller, MDVIP-affiliated practices where there’s more time for doctor-patient interaction and greater ability to see patients in the office at the onset of potential health problems, our physicians report a very light call volume after hours. Additionally, peer-reviewed published studies have found significantly reduced hospital admissions among patients in affiliated practices, which also translate to fewer calls.

Physicians can continue to share call with a group or arrange coverage with other local MDVIP-affiliated doctors when they go on vacation. And yes, you can take vacations without being anxious about the price you’ll have to pay for being away from the office.

Unlike concierge medicine or direct primary care models where physicians usually opt out of insurance, the MDVIP program is compatible with Medicare and most commercial plans, regardless of whether you’re an in-network or out-of-network provider. Aside from the MDVIP Wellness Program paid for by the annual patient membership fee, you can continue to collect co-pays and bill insurance for sick-care visits.

A byproduct of healthcare reform, more employers are offering high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts (HSA)–highly attractive because patients can keep their monthly insurance premiums lower while using HSA dollars to get reimbursed for their yearly MDVIP fee. The MDVIP program complements–even “supercharges”-the standard care covered by insurance for those patients who choose to invest in prevention and wellness.

Determining whether MDVIP can work for you is straightforward and can be accomplished in just a few short weeks. It starts with contacting us at 1.800.706.4384 to speak with an MDVIP representative. We then conduct a thorough evaluation to determine if you can achieve the practice experience you want for your patients. This sophisticated, proprietary assessment has been refined over the past 20 years and is highly predictive of success for MDVIP’s affiliated practices. It’s a cost-free, risk-free, obligation-free opportunity that, at minimum, provides you with valuable insight about your practice. If a determination is made that this is a good fit for your patients and your practice, MDVIP will discuss the terms of affiliation with you.

This is the first question every physician asks and one that defines the integrity of MDVIP and of our affiliated physicians. Continuity of care for patients who choose not to join you in a new MDVIP-affiliated practice is our priority. We will not move forward unless a continuity-of-care plan is established with other local doctors with whom you’re comfortable, either in the group practice or the community. We take care of everything working with you and your patients to make the transition process as seamless as possible.

Patients who join your practice will have an elevated interest in their health – prevention and management. They will highly regard your expertise and time, value their relationship with you and be motivated to work together with you so they can be healthy. And because they’ve chosen to invest in their wellness and fulfill their desire for more individualized attention, they tend to rely on your guidance for both lifestyle and treatment choices.

Some patients join to satisfy an unmet need in their current healthcare experience. The fact that you can offer conveniences not possible in traditional primary care practices and can be more available when they need you most is a level of service they genuinely appreciate. The nature of smaller, more personalized MDVIP-affiliated practices engenders relationships of mutual respect between doctors and patients. In fact, patients often say they consider their MDVIP-affiliated physician to be a “trusted friend” or “extended family.”

Unlike traditional primary care where physicians are retiring early and receive very little compensation for their practices, MDVIP-affiliated physicians sometimes delay retirement because they love what they do and they love the model. Given that the complexities of closing a practice can be just as challenging as building one, MDVIP approaches retirement planning the same way we approach practice transitions – putting you and your patients first. We take the work and worry out of retiring by providing you with a step-by-step strategy to successfully implement this personal milestone.

With our experienced succession team, we’re uniquely equipped to help monetize your practice and turn it into a valuable asset. We seek to maximize the value of your practice by recruiting a candidate to acquire it, a physician whom you’ve helped select. With the future well-being of your patients in good hands, you can retire with peace of mind, and with significant proceeds from the sale of your practice that was your life’s calling.

It’s never too early to plan for retirement. Listen to an MDVIP affiliate briefly describe his experience with our retirement program.

The short answer is YES. If you’re thinking of retiring early because you’re burnt out practicing at your current pace, MDVIP can help extend your career. Need proof? About a quarter of MDVIP-affiliated physicians are age 65+, with many practicing well into their 70s and even 80s. When you truly are ready to start the next chapter, MDVIP can simplify this milestone transition in your professional and personal life by helping you realize the monetary value of your practice. Planning your succession strategy with MDVIP sets you up for a more comfortable retirement than might otherwise be possible if you tried to sell your practice on your own.

Many affiliated physicians in single and multi-specialty group and employed practices are working alongside colleagues in a conventional primary care model. Having an MDVIP-affiliated physician within a group gives all patients additional choices for care and distinguishes the group from its competitors. Furthermore, the group setting enables patients who do not choose to join the MDVIP program the option to easily transition to other physicians in the practice.

Integrated hospital systems are also incorporating our MDVIP primary care model into their offerings. In response to growing consumer demand for more personalized, preventive medicine, MDVIP creates a new service arm for hospitals and health systems to attract and retain patients.

In addition to providing a solution to internists and family physicians in traditional volume medicine who are looking for a way to practice the way they were trained, MDVIP offers transition expertise to doctors with a variety of professional goals. We work with non-MDVIP primary care physicians in both conventional and concierge practices to implement a successful succession or retirement plan by assisting with continuity-of-care services for their patients. For doctors interested in acquiring a personalized care practice or seeking employment, we have opportunities around the country as MDVIP-affiliated physicians retire and take advantage of our succession experience. We work with physicians the same way our affiliated doctors work with patients—we customize our efforts to meet unique business needs.

The MDVIP model is most successful in established primary care practices. More than 100 MDVIP-affiliated physicians are in their 30s and 40s. As the healthcare landscape continues to change bringing with it more uncertainty, younger doctors value the financial security and predictability of the MDVIP model. They’re also enjoying a better work/life balance and are able to save for retirement. Many of our affiliated physicians say their biggest regret is not transitioning sooner. And they’re more than willing to tell you why. Just call us at 800-706-4384 and we’ll put you in touch.