Marcus Welby M.D. was a highly rated television show that ran for seven seasons from 1969 – 1976.  He was a compassionate primary care general practitioner that would monitor the health of his patients, make house calls and in many ways, become an extended member of the family.

Hollywood myth aside, many doctors are now deciding to leave the third party payer system and return to a “patient pays for preventative medicine and a personal relationship”.  Now called “concierge medicine”, many doctors believe this is the ultimate answert to what ails American health care.  A 2004 study  showed that if every patient had home health care, the savings could approach $70 billion a year.  Dr. Steven Knope opened one of the first concierge medicine practices in 2000.  He discusses what concierge medicine is and isn’t.   

From a Blue Ocean Strategy perspective, concierge medicine offers significant value innovation by dramatically raising the bar in terms of patient service and lowering costs to the system.  However, in today’s heated political climate, this part of the discussion seems to have been left out.