"All of these companies are doing things so that affluent families can have a better experience in the healthcare field," Spector said.
His firm provides a whole host of services, from advanced diagnostic and genetic testing to storing stem cells. They also provide helicopters for evacuation in emergency situations, and locate the relevant medical research that can assist people who are gravely ill. And every patient gets a relationship manager, who will guide them on which doctors to see, schedule appointments, even accompany them to those appointments and take notes. Spector says handholding can be the difference between life and death.
"We go way beyond that for people who want the most comprehensive management support for medicine," Spector said. "Not only do we do the research, get the access and manage it, but you don't wait on lines."
One
client had recurring cervical cancer that had progressed so far,
doctors refused to take her on as a patient. But her relationship
manager found a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins who was willing to
treat her. The doctor performed a difficult six-hour surgery to remove
a tumor that was wrapped among her arteries and veins. He had one of
the country's leading vascular surgeons on hand so that they could
actually remove the arteries and veins in
order to get the tumor
out. After undergoing three more rounds of chemotherapy, the patient's
relationship manager accompanied her to her last CT-scan, where she was
told her cancer had finally gone into remission.
While PinnacleCare's practice serves mostly individuals, Spector says the firm also has a fair number of corporate clients, though they serve only the executives, or what he referred to as the C-Suite: the CEO, the CFO, the COO. The company will hire his firm because if someone in the executive's family gets sick, it's in the company's interest to have a firm like Pinnacle, rather than its CEO, accompanying that family member on all of those doctor's appointments.
"We take it off their plate," Spector said.