'Boutique medicine' offers some patients access to services insurance companies deny

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Jack Harris needed something to ease his shoulder and arm pain. A fusion would limit his mobility, but an artificial disc replacement seemed like a good solution.

The only catch with the surgery was that his insurance would not pay for the $29,000 procedure. That's when Harris decided to use his own retirement savings.

"[It was either] the money I worked so hard for, I worked so hard to save or my health. And you know, some people can't make that decision and at least I could, and I chose health. I chose to have the surgery done," he said.

Harris' doctor allowed him to pay directly for the medical service he needed, which is an approach known as "boutique medicine." In some cases, it cuts the insurance company out of the medical equation.

Supporters of the approach said it gives patients more choices in their care and allows for more time with doctors.

But some worry too many physicians will turn to this type of practice, which will add to the doctor shortage, and it can be expensive depending on the service.

"For lack of a better term, it has a certain snob appeal that I can go to the doctor who I want, not who the insurance company tells me I have to go to," said Scott Blumenthal, an orthopedic surgeon at the Texas Back Institute.

For Harris, it was well worth the cost.

"It's just being able to engage in life, to not be consumed with pain," he said.

A leader of the American Academy of Private Physicians estimates as many as 5,000 doctors nationwide have direct primary care practices, charging fees of $600 to several thousand dollars.

Harris said he appealed his insurance company's decision and they reimbursed him a significant portion of the expenses for his artificial disc replacement surgery.