Priced out: Some Long COVID and ME specialists charge high prices for concierge care, The Sick Times

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Priced out: Some Long COVID and ME specialists charge high prices for concierge care

Key points you should know:

* Prominent specialists treating complex infection-associated chronic conditions have stopped taking insurance, raised their rates, and/or moved to a concierge model, requiring patients to purchase expensive monthly subscriptions.

* The highest concierge fees range from $5,000 to $8,500 monthly, with treatments billed separately. Despite physicians charging high rates, patients struggle to receive consistent care from providers or affordable referrals when priced out of a specialist’s practice.

* Current health insurance models don’t work well for people with complex conditions — one of many factors that contributes to physician burnout.

* Rising costs and lack of insurance coverage are pushing some patients to digital healthcare platforms and virtual clinics, which also carry subscription fees of more than $1,000 a month.

* Patients priced out of care sometimes self-manage their treatments. A small but growing group of resources exist to help patients identify solutions without providers’ help.

The Sick Times LINK

 

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Dr Ruhoy mentioned in the article is also with Atria Health and Research Institute, which according to the NY Post (Link) have a $100,000 initial fee and $60,000 annual fee.

Link to Atria Health page with Dr Ruhoy.

Dr Ruhoy is one of the Neurologists sending people for CCI surgery and has the webinars with Dr Kaufmann. It has been noted that she changes clinics frequently and seems to be listed at several.

Private Medical is also mentioned in the article with $30,000 fees.

 

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Attached is the newsletter from the new practice Dr. Ruhoy founded called Anthurium. It has instructions for new and existing patients and the fees (excluding any treatment) mentioned in the Sick Times article (also LINK). The link to the newsletter is also on the Anthurium web page.

 

[Hutan]

These sorts of fees sound potentially very exploitative, given that, as yet, in my view, there is no treatments bringing significant benefit, and certainly no evidence based treatments.

Dr Ruhoy mentioned in the article is also with Atria Health and Research Institute, which according to the NY Post (Link) have a $100,000 initial fee and $60,000 annual fee.

Any doctor charging those sorts of fees has enough income to be conducting decent trials, for the benefit of their patients, and for people who can't afford to pay so much for care. I think they have a duty to be doing that.