Dr. Jordan Shlain, founder of Private Healthcare.
Credit: Jordan Shlain
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth with Robert Frank newsletter, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Register to receive future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
When people ask Dr. Jordan Shlain to describe his medical practice, he says simply: “It’s a family office for your health.”
“Family offices often have a goal of preserving assets,” he said. “Our goal is to protect your health. After age 24, you are a depreciating asset in terms of your health. So we aim to reduce the steepness of the curve for as long as possible.”
As discouraging as it sounds for patients, Shlain’s strategy is paying off as a business model. His company, Private Medical, is pioneering a new type of health care for the super-rich, taking specialized care to a new level. Instead of just providing on-demand doctors and faster visits, Private Medical has pioneered a highly personalized, all-in-one service that closely resembles the most sophisticated home offices to start with. private.
Like family offices, Private Medical has an in-house team to manage a family’s entire health portfolio – from fitness and diet tracking to longevity research, surgery and acute care. medical rescue. It currently serves more than 1,000 wealthy families, with offices in California – San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills – New York and Miami, with more offices to come.
Private Medical’s team of 135 doctors, nurses, clinical staff, pharmacists and medical support specialists provide on-demand services 24/7, including home and office visits when needed . Private Medical does not advertise and receives most of its business through referrals. It likes to call patients “members.”
Shlain declined to provide specifics on pricing, but Private Medical customers say they charge $40,000 a year per adult patient and $25,000 per patient under 18. The annual fee covers office visits, tests, and procedures, but not hospitalization.
The rise of family office-style medical practices — some of which charge membership fees of up to $60,000 a year — reflects a rise in family assets worth $100 million or more. rise and the growing demand for hyper-personalized, data-driven healthcare from a global economy. The billionaire and millionaire class is aging.
According to Precedence Research, the market for personalized medical and concierge services for the wealthy is expected to grow more than 50% by 2032, to nearly $11 billion per year.
Shlain said insurance companies, physician overload and rising prices have turned the health care system into what he calls a “sick care system.” Private healthcare, for those who can afford it, sets proactive goals, performs regular tests and diagnoses on patients, keeps them informed of new research and science, and receive detailed information about the patient’s lifestyle, habits, family life and work, Shlain said.
Shlain, whose father is a laparoscopic surgeon and whose mother has a Ph.D. in psychology, began his work visiting the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco. He took a “crash course” in luxury hotels from top hotel concierges and realized that healthcare should be more like five-star hotel service than an impersonal system with long wait times and diagnostic errors.
“I will know everything about you to help you make the best decisions in your life,” he said. “I am 70% doctor, 15% psychologist, 10% clergy 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 businessman and major donor to a major hospital, was hospitalized with intestinal obstruction. The hospital director and the chief of surgery hurriedly began the surgery. Shlain backed down and suggested waiting a day or two. Shlain said the patient recovered on his own while in the hospital “and walked out without surgery.”
Shlain also creates personalized medical kits for patients to take with them when traveling or working. When a patient suffered a scratched cornea while playing beach volleyball in the Bahamas, he was able to treat his eye with a prescription in a medical kit instead of having to search for a hospital on one of the nearby islands. there.
Like most services for the super-rich, the main benefit of Private Healthcare is accessibility. Shlain has spent more than 20 years developing relationships with more than 4,000 professionals in various medical and scientific fields to connect patients with the right people 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 discovering new treatments. Shlain said Private Medical conducts due diligence on four or five new companies each month to keep up with rapidly changing science and research.
When a patient was diagnosed with major depression, Shlain worked with a new “precision psychiatry” group at Stanford to scan the brain and use connectomes (a map of neural connections in the brain) to determine which medication is best for treatment. .
“He took the right medication and now he’s better,” Shlain said.
Private Medical also prides itself on its technology, developed with some of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs and entrepreneurs. Its platform makes it easy for both doctors and patients to access data, manage appointments and workflows.
Two big areas for his wealthy patients are longevity and sleep. As for longevity, Shlain said there is no magic pill or diet or drug that can turn back the clock, even for billionaires. The real goal, he says, is “to allow you to live with your physical and mental faculties intact for as long as possible with as few high-quality interactions as possible with the health care system.”
“Your good results are our income,” he said.
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