With Dr. Weisman

I understand you are making some changes to your practice?

• Yes. And no. I am not retiring! I am converting to a “Concierge Medicine” practice. I will still be practicing at my office at Preferred Medical. The practice and all the doctors and staff at PMG are not changing in any way. All the PMG providers and staff will remain available to all of my concierge patients as they always have been as back up in my absence or perhaps after hours. The only change is that for me to remain your personal primary care physician and be responsible for your ongoing care, you must become a member because I am reducing my practice size by around 80%. There will no change in the way I or PMG takes insurance.

What is Concierge Medicine?

• It is a membership-based practice that patients will join for a modest fee. These patients will have real-time access to their me—at office visits, by a private mobile number for phone calls and texts. I will also now be able to expand video visits right from your phone or computer to me—sometimes replacing the need for office visits.
• This is really all about time To satisfy insurance companies regulations today, doctors need to see more patients in less time to meet ever-increasing overhead costs. The ten or fifteen minutes allotted for often complex patient visits is no longer acceptable to me. The economics of a Concierge practice allows me to reduce the number of patients I am responsible for and responsive to will change from ~2,000 to a few hundred.

How do membership fees work?

• My fees are roughly half of a typical Concierge practice because I don’t want cost to be a roadblock. Moreover, I offer a very affordable Concierge Lite membership for younger and generally healthier patients. The average concierge Medicine fee nationally is $2000.00 and in Michigan is $1800 annually. My fees, as you will see under the Sign-Up tab, are substantially less for most adults and for younger patients they are a fraction of that. I will be limiting Concierge and Concierge Lite patients to approximately 100 each but I will have a waiting list.
• Once you apply for membership, I will review your request and when applicable, I will apply discounts including to all current patients (15%) and further discounts for patients whose state of health isn’t expected to demand too much of my attention. My goal is to be as affordable as possible as I reduce the size of my practice to patients who really want me as their very accessible, highly personal physician.

Can existing patients still see Dr. Weisman even if they are not Concierge Members?

• I will only serve as the personal continuity of care physician for member-patients. However, I also see patients at PMG on days I am available and my schedule permits, on a same-day basis for immediate or urgent care for adults of all ages (greater than 16-years of age). In this same-day capacity, I will be treating patients at PMG who call that day, have an immediate need or are unable to secure an appointment with their usual primary care doctor immediately. All others will be reassigned to another provider at PMG.

How does this benefit the patients who join?

• This model is for patients who have come to value the care I can provide—only it’ll be better because you will have much greater access to me, and I’ll have more time for you.
• I become your overall healthcare advocate in the way I think it is supposed to be, but rarely is because most doctors are just too busy.
• For years, many Beaumont specialists have referred to me their most complex patients because they know I’ll coordinate care in a grand way. The advocacy I provide keeps the entire team on the same page and this prevents disasters.
• As many of you know, I have always been that type of doctor—never satisfied until I have the right diagnosis and always trying to oversee your care. It’s becoming too hard for me to do this for so many people.
• If you are away or I am away, if you are in the ER, the hospital or seeing specialists, I am much more available to following along and provide oversight when appropriate.
• It’ll be like having your close friend become your personal physician. Many of you have known the comfort that brings for years.

Is this just a convenience for patients who want to be pampered by paying an additional fee?

• It’s a great question. The answer is no.
• This access is not just a convenience—it’s a quality issue because when you remove “limited time” from the equation, quality of care improves. Convenience for you? Sure. But quality is key here.
• The convenience part. The average patient waits 3 days for an OV. Then they wait in the lobby for 40 minutes and finally see the doctor-or more often their PA—and the average length of an office visit in the US is eight minutes! Almost two of those are the provider documenting the visit. This is as crazy as it is inconvenient. Barring some unusual circumstance like traveling, I will be available for you to reach me when you feel the need to. To be able to reach you doctor so easily is a luxury few people enjoy.
• Here is the quality part: Time and experience. My 25 years as a generalist and Geriatric Specialist, treating complex patients and complex elders has sharpened my medical skills. My 25 years as a physician leader in our Beaumont Physician Groups, where I’ve served in positions including co-founder of both UP and BPO (Beaumont’s physician organizations), Medical Director and Chairman of the Board for the Beaumont Physician Organization (BPO), and many other positions have helped me to cement relationships with the best of the best. When necessary, I find you the best specialists and communicate with them to coordinate your care-locally or beyond.
• My knowledge and capabilities are further enhanced with functional /antiaging training and certification. The fusing of traditional care with natural remedies is truly state of the art today and I am a certified expert in both.
• Unless you’ve experienced this kind of access to an experienced doctor—and many of you have with me—you don’t realize what a valuable asset it is. In the scariest and most uncertain situations—because nothing is more precious than your health—you’re’ not alone, because I’ll be in your corner providing you greater peace-of-mind to the best of my ability.

In summary: For me to continue to practice the high quality, personal care you and I are accustomed to, I must make a change because it’s just too difficult to give 2,000 patients this level of attention. The Concierge Model allows me to practice medicine the way it should be and still carve out a life for myself. Finally, I can strive to fill the shoes of both “Dr. House” and “Dr. Welby”—for those of you old enough to know who those great docs were!

All new WC members will receive this letter. It serves as a good description of what one can expect as a WC member

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