Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Marc Tanenbaum.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been in North Atlanta since 1978 practicing as a general pediatrician in a traditional office setting which grew over the years to four office locations, 10 MD’s, 4 Nurse Practitioners and numerous front office and back office support staff, all of whom were and are skilled professionals. However, in 2009, the pressure to see more patients in less time became very unsatisfying. My colleagues were unwilling to allow our computer appointment system to permit different time slots for physicians with different patient care time needs. All of our appointment slots had to be the same so as not to make appointment scheduling difficult for our secretaries.
Since I was given no option to allow me to maintain my professional standard of patient care other than to provide less care in less time, I gave my notice and left the practice.
It took me about 6 months to decide I was too young to retire. I was about to sign a lease for a small office space right across from the front entrance of Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital when it occurred to me I was re-creating the same economic pressures that led to my professional dissatisfaction in the first place.
At this point in 2009, I was somewhat familiar with the concept of a house call physician. In fact, I remembered from my childhood my pediatrician leaving his office to see me in my home when I had Measles, Scarlet Fever and Chicken Pox. He even gave me shots of penicillin in my home and put a yellow quarantine tape across our front door.
This concept intrigued me, so to learn more about it, I spent a long weekend with Dr. Scott Serbin of Pinnacle Pediatrics in Pittsburgh, PA, the first Concierge House Call Pediatrician in the country. This was a valuable weekend in that it allowed me to become familiar with some of the tools of the trade of a house call pediatrician.
So with a basic practice model in mind, I approached Blue Cross/Blue Shield of GA to see if I could contract with them as a provider of pediatric services. BCBS was not interested in contracting with any physician who charged an additional fee to their clients even though their contract said a physician could charge their patients any fees for non-covered services that were pre-approved by the patient.
As you may know, it is not possible to be a concierge, direct-care, boutique, independent physician in today’s healthcare marketplace without an additional charge for this personalized service.
Although my initial plan was to make a single annual charge to my patients for participation in my practice, I quickly realized that this cash-flow burden could be eased by allowing 4 quarterly payments. These payments are for services generally not covered by insurers including but not limited to 24/7 physician availability and unlimited house calls for sick and well care, personalized communication by phone, text, email, Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangout. Courtesy visits are made to my patients who are hospitalized under the care of our local pediatric Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta hospitalists and our newborn nursery pediatric hospitalists.
I am very well pleased with the time I have to share with my patients and the care I offer them. I educate them about vaccines, their children’s growth, nutrition and development. I endorse and promote breast feeding for new mothers. I have time to read about current pediatric issues and keep up with my professional journals.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s never a smooth road when you are the first to travel that road in one’s community. However, patients have been supportive and enthusiastic of the personal service and un-rushed time. Parents appreciate timely 21st century communication with text and email and the ability to share photos and videos of symptoms and physical findings. I have found it satisfying to find technology for bedside diagnosis in my patient’s home. This avenue of diagnostic testing remains limited in what’s available, but I expect that it has great potential for home based care.
The struggle like in traditional office-based medicine is to keep things cost effective. Some things, of course, I have no control over like the cost of immunizations. I do have control over the quality of education to my families that I provide regarding the benefits of immunization.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Priority Pediatrics story. Tell us more about the business.
My business is pediatrics. My priority is my patient. That’s why my company is called Priority Pediatrics. I provide general pediatric care for sick and well children in their home from birth to graduating college. Although I am a Board Certified General Pediatrician, I do have several areas of interests, e.g. asthma, eczema, behavioral & developmental concerns, learning disabilities, common infectious diseases, and such.
My flexibility of appointment hours is greatly appreciated by working parents, busy professionals, etc.
I am most proud that I can now give my patients the time and care they want and deserve, and have no outside pressures on me to do less.
What sets me apart from other pediatric practices, is that I am the only house-call (non-office-based) pediatrician in Georgia, as far as I know.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
There is a growing trend in direct-care, concierge healthcare services in our country. No matter what the government does or does not do regarding health care insurance, there will always be physicians who can care for patients as non-participating providers, unless the government makes that illegal. Should that happen, there will develop a major crisis in healthcare in our country.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.priority-pediatrics.com
- Phone: 404-654-0426
- Email: shelly@priority-pediatrics.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Priority-Pediatrics-PC
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrT_Atlanta
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