Meet the private doctor to the wealthy — at $40,000 a year

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When
people
ask
Dr.
Jordan
Shlain
to
describe
his
medical
practice,
he
says
simply: “It’s
a
family
office
for
your
health.”

“Family
offices
typically
have
a
goal
of
preserving
wealth,”
he
said. “Our
goal
is
preserving
your
health.
After
the
age
of
24
you’re
a
depreciating
asset
health-wise.
So
we
aim
to
decrease
the
slope
of
the
curve
for
as
long
as
possible.”

As
depressing
as
that
sounds
for
patients,
Shlain’s
strategy
is
paying
off
as
a
business
model.
His
company,

Private
Medical,
is
at
the
forefront
of
a
new
type
of
health
care
for
the
ultra-wealthy
that
has
taken
concierge
medicine
to
a
whole
new
level.
Rather
than
simply
offering
on-call
doctors
and
faster
visits,
Private
Medical
has
pioneered
a
highly
personalized,
all-in-one
service
that’s
more
akin
to
the
most
sophisticated
family
offices
for
investments.

Like
family
offices,
Private
Medical
has
an
in-house
team
to
manage
a
family’s
entire
health
portfolio
–
from
fitness
and
dietary
tracking
to
longevity
research,
surgeries
and
medical
emergencies.
It
now
serves
more
than
1,000
wealthy
families,
with
offices
in
California
—
San
Francisco,
Silicon
Valley,
Santa
Monica
and
Beverly
Hills
—
New
York
and
Miami,
and
more
offices
on
the
way.

Private
Medical’s
team
of
135
physicians,
nurses,
clinical
staff,
pharmacists
and
medical
support
professionals
provides
24/7
on-call
service,
including
home
and
office
visits
when
needed.
Private
Medical
doesn’t
advertise
and
gets
most
of
its
business
through
referrals.
It
prefers
to
call
patients “members.”

Shlain
declined
to
give
specifics
on
price,
but
clients
of
Private
Medical
say
it
charges
$40,000
a
year
for
each
adult
patient
and
$25,000
per
patient
under
the
age
of
18.
The
annual
fees
cover
the
cost
of
visits,
tests
and
procedures
in
the
office,
but
not
hospitalization.

The
rise
of
family
office-style
medical
practices
–
some
of
which
are
charging
up
to
$60,000
a
year
for
membership
–
reflects
the
surge
in
wealth
among
families
worth
$100
million
or
more
and
growing
demand
for
hyper-personalized,
data-driven
health
care
from
an
aging
class
of
billionaires
and
millionaires.

The
market
for
concierge
and
personalized
medical
services
for
the
wealthy
is
expected
to
grow
by
more
than
50%
by
2032,
to
nearly
$11
billion
a
year,
according
to
Precedence
Research.

Shlain
says
insurance
companies,
overloaded
doctors
and
inflated
prices
have
turned
the
health-care
system
into
what
he
calls
a “sick
care
system.”
Private
Medical,
for
those
who
can
afford
it,
aims
to
be
proactive,
running
frequents
tests
and
diagnostics
on
patients,
constantly
updating
them
with
new
research
and
science,
and
getting
detailed
information
about
a
patient’s
lifestyle,
habits,
family
lives
and
work
lives,
Shlain
said.

Shlain,
whose
father
was
a
laparoscopic
surgeon
and
whose
mother
had
a
Ph.D.
in
psychology,
started
out
doing
house
calls
for
the
Mandarin
Oriental
hotel
in
San
Francisco.
He
took
a “crash
course”
in
high-end
hospitality
from
top
hotel
concierges
and
realized
health
care
should
be
more
like
five-star
hotel
service
than
an
impersonal
system
of
long
wait
times
and
error-filled
diagnoses.
 

“I
will
know
everything
about
you
to
help
you
make
the
best
decisions
in
your
life,”
he
said. “I’m
70%
doctor,
15%
psychologist,
10%
rabbi
and
1%
friend.”

Private
Medical’s
job
is
often
to
protect
its
patients
from
the
broader
medical
system,
Shlain
said.
One
of
his
patients,
a
38-year-old
entrepreneur
and
big
donor
to
a
major
hospital,
was
admitted
for
a
bowel
obstruction.
The
hospital
CEO
and
chief
of
surgery
rushed
to
start
performing
surgery.
Shlain
pushed
back
and
recommended
waiting
a
day
or
two.
The
patient
recovered
on
his
own
while
in
the
hospital “and
walked
out
without
surgery,”
Shlain
said.

Shlain
also
creates
personalized
medical
kits
for
patients
to
take
with
them
when
traveling
or
working.
When
one
patient
scratched
his
cornea
playing
beach
volleyball
in
the
Bahamas,
the
patient
was
able
to
treat
his
eye
with
a
prescription
in
his
medical
kit
rather
than
searching
for
a
hospital
on
one
of
the
nearby
islands.

Like
most
services
for
the
ultra-wealthy,
the
main
benefit
of
Private
Medical
is
access.
Shlain
has
spent
over
20
years
developing
relationships
with
more
than
4,000
specialists
in
various
medical
and
scientific
fields
to
connect
patients
with
the
right
person
for
their
specific
needs.

With
roots
in
Silicon
Valley
and
many
tech
clients,
Private
Medical
is
also
connected
to
biotech
startups
doing
cutting-edge
research
and
exploring
new
treatments.
Shlain
said
Private
Medical
conducts
due
diligence
on
four
or
five
new
companies
a
month
to
keep
pace
with
fast-changing
science
and
research.

When
one
patient
was
diagnosed
with
severe
depression,
Shlain
worked
with
a
new “precision
psychiatric”
group
at
Stanford
that
does
an
MRI
of
the
brain
and
uses
connectomes
(a
map
of
the
neural
connections
in
the
brain)
to
determine
which
medication
was
best
for
treatment.

“He
got
the
right
medication,
and
now
he’s
better,”
Shlain
said.

Private
Medical
also
prides
itself
on
its
technology,
developed
with
some
of
the
top
CEOs
and
entrepreneurs
in
Silicon
Valley.
Its
platform
helps
both
doctors
and
patients
easily
access
data,
manage
appointments
and
workflows.

Two
big
areas
for
his
wealthy
patients
are
longevity
and
sleep.
With
longevity,
Shlain
said
there’s
no
magic
bullet
or
diet
or
medication
to
roll
back
time,
even
for
billionaires.
The
real
goal,
he
said
is
to “enable
you
to
live
with
your
physical
and
mental
faculties
intact
for
as
long
as
possible
with
the
fewest
high-quality
interactions
with
the
health-care
system
as
possible.”

“Your
good
outcome
is
our
income,”
he
said.

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