Concierge Physician

Concierge Physicians goes by many names, boutique medicine, retainer medicine, executive health, VIP medicine, and personalized medicine. By any name, Concierge Physician is the solution for doctors trying to maintain their integrity and independence in today’s difficult healthcare environment. Concierge Physician is a new style of practice with old roots, in which doctors limit their patient base in order to provide patients with personalized service, high quality care, 24-7 availability, and other amenities. In exchange for this enhanced personal attention, patients pay physicians an annual fee. This concierge fee enables physicians to increase their compensation while managing their workload. In addition to receiving an annual fee, most concierge physicians continue to receive reimbursements from health plans and private pay clients. Concierge Physicians is a relationship between a patient and a primary care physician in which the patient pays an annual fee or retainer. This may or may not be in addition to other charges. In exchange for the retainer, doctors provide enhanced care. Other terms in use include boutique medicine, retainer-based medicine, and innovative medical practice design. The practice is also referred to as membership medicine, concierge health care, cash only practice, direct care, direct primary care, and direct practice medicine. While all Concierge Physicians practices share similarities, they vary widely in their structure, payment requirements, and form of operation. In particular, they differ in the level of service provided and the amount of the fee charged. There are an estimated 5,000 concierge, or membership medicine doctors throughout the U.S. Concierge physicians care for fewer patients than in a conventional practice. All generally claim to be accessible via cell phone or email at any time of day or night or offer some other special service beyond the normal care provided. The annual fees vary widely, from $600 to $5,000 per year for an individual, with the lower annual fees being in addition to the usual fees for each service and the higher annual fees including most services.

Some concierge practices do not accept insurance of any kind. These are as cash-only or direct primary care practices. By refusing to deal with insurance companies, these practices can keep overhead and administrative costs low, thereby providing affordable healthcare to patients. They become concierge only if the practice assesses an annual or monthly fee instead of or in addition to a fee for each medical service. Other concierge practices do take insurance, even Medicare, but ask for an annual fee for additional services exclusive of insurance plans. This annual fee is not a substitute for medical insurance, and generally does not cover consultations outside the practice, laboratory procedures, medicines, hospitalizations, or emergency care from other providers.

Celebrity

Recognize celebrities in society and culture as being beyond the individual. A celebrity is someone who gets media attention and shows an extroverted personality. There is a wide range of ways by which people may become celebrities: from their profession, appearances in the mass media, or even by complete accident or infamy. Instant celebrity is the term that is when someone becomes a celebrity in a very short time. In some places, someone that somehow achieves a small amount of transient fame, through hype or mass media, is a B-grade celebrity. Often the stereotype extends to someone that falls short of mainstream or persistent fame but seeks to extend or exploit it. The insatiable public fascination for celebrities and demand for celebrity gossip has seen the rise of the gossip columnist, tabloid, paparazzi, and celebrity blogging.

Hollywood

Hollywood is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California that is situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is a metonym of American cinema, and people often use it interchangeably to refer to the greater Los Angeles area in general. The nicknames Star Struck Town and Tinsel Town refer to Hollywood and its movie industry. In 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished in the area with thriving crops of many common and exotic varieties. The residents called this area the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. Soon thereafter, land speculation would lead to subdivision of the large plots and an influx of homeowners. Hollywood incorporated as a municipality on November 14, 1903. The vote was 88 for incorporation and 77 against it. On January 30, 1904, the voters in Hollywood decided, by a vote of 113 to 96, for the banishment of liquor in the city, except when it was for medicinal purposes. Neither hotels nor restaurants served wine or liquor before or after meals. By 1910, because of an ongoing struggle to secure an adequate water supply, town officials voted for Hollywood to annex into the City of Los Angeles for its water system. Los Angeles was a growing city and had opened the Los Angeles Aqueduct that was piping water down from the Owens River in the Owens Valley. Another reason for the vote was that Hollywood could have access to drainage through Los Angeles' sewer system. With annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue changed to Hollywood Boulevard and all the street numbers in the new district changed.