What If Your Doctor Actually Had Time for You?
Call your primary care office sometime and count how many people you talk to before you reach your actual doctor. For most patients in most systems, that number is zero. You leave a message, someone calls back, it’s not your doctor, and by the time anything gets resolved you’ve either gotten worse or driven yourself to urgent care.
Dr. Gaddiel Rios, a primary care physician practicing in Rapid City, saw that problem coming a long time ago. He chose a different model.
“With the MDVIP model, can you keep the patient load between four hundred and six hundred patients? That way you have the time. I can sit down for an hour, hour and fifteen minutes with a patient if I need to.”
In his previous private practice in Houston, Dr. Rios was seeing thirty-two to thirty-three patients a day with four thousand patients on his panel. Now, a busy day is eight to ten patients.
What MDVIP Actually Is
MDVIP is a national network of primary care physicians that operates on a membership model. Members pay an annual fee instead of relying purely on insurance billing. That fee covers a level of access and screening most standard plans won’t touch.
“Every one of my members gets my cell phone number, so they know they have access to me. They can call me if something happens. It’s not leave a message somewhere or put in a computer message and see when it gets responded to.”
The annual wellness program includes cardiac markers like apolipoprotein B, lipoprotein A, myeloperoxidase, and LP-PLA2 activity, tests that go beyond a standard cholesterol panel and give a more specific read on cardiovascular risk. Most insurance plans don’t cover them. With MDVIP, they’re included.
Members also receive a screening EKG, pulmonary function testing, body composition analysis, grip strength measurement, and hearing and vision screenings, all in a single visit. It’s the kind of thorough intake most people never get from a routine annual physical.
The Numbers Behind It
MDVIP members see a seventy-two percent lower hospitalization rate compared to the general population, and a twelve percent lower risk of heart attack.
“When you’re accessible and when people can see their doctor, you can catch those things early, treat them and manage them in the clinic and at home, as opposed to waiting for complications to evolve.”
Dr. Rios also uses an AI algorithm to model cardiovascular risk, plugging in a patient’s data to show where they stand today and what specific lifestyle or treatment changes would do to that number. He says patients find it genuinely motivating to watch their cardiac risk drop as a result of changes they’ve already made.
Who It’s For
The patient panel at Dr. Rios’s Rapid City practice runs from people in their mid-twenties to their eighties. Nationally, MDVIP has a significant membership base of nurses and truck drivers, largely because of the accessibility piece.
“The younger group is looking for how do I live better, healthier, longer, and how do I plan ahead based on family history or other motivations. The forty to sixty year-olds are getting to that phase of life where they’re looking at how am I going to enjoy my retirement and stay healthier.”
He sees patients’ children from toddlers through age twenty-six as dependents. Referrals connect into a network of fifteen major medical centers, including Mayo, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and MD Anderson. Fortune magazine ranked MDVIP second only to Mayo Clinic for executive-style health exams, and it’s the only primary care-based practice in the top ten.
If You’re Considering It
“I want patients who want to be engaged, involved, and want to improve their health. If you just want to come in once a year, this is probably not the right fit. The right fit is patients who want to reduce their risk down the road.”
Dr. Rios’s practice marked its one-year anniversary in Rapid City this summer. You can learn more and find his practice at mdvip.com.
