The four-year-old company has between 1,000 and 5,000 patients, and is gaining clients among executives of fund-management and private-equity firms, Michelson says. He declined to specify the number of clients or provide a range for costs.
Nicholas Schorsch, 51, chief executive officer of American Realty Capital, began working with Private Health after his father-in-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"He was going down very, very rapidly, and they were able to reverse it to a point of stabilizing him" for several years, says Schorsch, whose New York-based firm manages about $7 billion, primarily in real estate investment trusts. "It was a wonderful gift to the family."
Primary-care doctors with MD2 International LLC limit their practices to 50 families, with each office made up of two doctors. Fees vary by city, with a typical family paying from $25,000 to $30,000 a year, none of which is generally covered by insurance, says Peter Hoedemaker, chief executive officer of the Bellevue, Wash.-based company, which is pronounced "MD-squared."
"There are different levels of hotels, and different levels of cars," Hoedemaker says.
The firm is currently serving about 500 families in five U.S. cities, with plans to open offices in Dallas and New York this year, he says.
John Dillon, 50, started using MDVIP when his doctor, Alan Sheff, decided to join the network. Dillon says he likes the ease of getting an appointment as well as the fact that he and his doctor have each other's cell phone numbers.
"It's kind of like the financial advice business," says Dillon, a senior vice president in Bethesda, Md., with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. "I can only have so many clients, or else at some point you don't know what their needs are anymore."