The Three Faces of Retainer Care: Crafting a Tailored Regulatory Response
Brooklyn Law School BrooklynWorks Faculty Scholarship 2007 The Three Faces of Retainer Care: Crafting a Tailored Regulatory Response Frank Pasquale Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/faculty Part of the Health Law and Policy Commons The Three Faces of Retainer Care: Crafting a Tailored Regulatory Response Frank Pasquale* INTRODUCTION Retainer care arrangements allow patients to pay a retainer directly to a physician's office in order to obtain special access to care.' Practices usually convert to retainer status by focusing their attention on those willing to pay a retainer fee, and dropping the majority of their patients, who are left to be absorbed by other practices.2 Also known as "boutique medicine," "concierge care," or "innovative practice design," retainer practices have drawn thousands of enthusiastic patients.3 * Frank Pasquale, J.D., is Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall Law School. The author would like to thank Jesse Goldner, Tim Greaney, Sandra Johnson, Timothy Jost, Russell Korobkin, Kristen Madison, Timothy McBride, Wendy Parmet, Nicolas Terry, Sidney Watson, Vicki Williams, Eric Claeys, Adam Mossoff, Adam Kolber, and other participants at the St. Louis University Health Law Scholars Workshop, and the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics Annual Health Law Professors Conference at the University of Maryland for their comments. Charles Sullivan, Peter Schuck, John Jacobi, Kathleen Boozang, and Richard Murphy also provided very challenging and helpful comments. 1. Controversies over retainer care extend even to its name. Congress chose the term "concierge care" in the 2003 Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act. 42 U.S.C.A.
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