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Local Living
A community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland.
Local Living
Dr. Kamaljit Kaur: Revolutionizing Healthcare with Concierge Primary Care at KKAUR MD
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Ever found yourself yearning for healthcare that feels less like a transaction and more like a partnership? Dr. Kamaljit Kaur joins us to unravel the fabric of a personalized medical revolution on Local Living. As the founder of KKAUR MD, Dr. Kaur is advocating for a healthcare journey that defies traditional insurance models, opting instead for a membership-based approach to ensure each patient is more than just a number. We cover ground on the intrinsic value of extended consultations and the luxury of direct physician access, painting a picture of a future where the patient-doctor dynamic is intimately redefined.
By maintaining a cap on her patient list, Dr. Kaur pledges a caliber of attentiveness that turns the tables on conventional medical experiences. For those intrigued by the prospect of a healthcare experience tailor-made to fit your life, Dr. Kaur offers a bridge to the exceptional with an open invitation for a complimentary consultation.
www.kkaurmd.com
954-947-0327
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast!
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Concierge Primary Care Medicine Shift
Speaker 1Welcome , welcome everyone , to Local Living , a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland . I'm David Conway , your host for episode 23 today . You know healthcare is challenging . I talk to various colleagues and friends . I ask them who their primary care physician is and I can tell you half of them don't even know . Fortunately , there is a shift happening towards more personalized healthcare and my guest today is at the forefront of that trend . We have Dr Kamaljeet Kaur . She is the founder of KKAUR MD concierge primary care Doctor . Welcome to Local Living .
Speaker 2Hi , good morning David . Thank you so much for having me .
Speaker 1My pleasure . I was excited about speaking with you today because I can tell you this is something that my wife and I have been discussing lately , and we are also thinking about taking a turn , a shift towards what you're offering . Can you tell us a little bit more about your business , a little bit more about KCORMD Concierge Primary Care ?
Speaker 2Yes , absolutely so . Kcormd is a passion project . I will start out by saying it's a grassroots sort of movement . I say sort of because there are many of us physicians who are transitioning to this , so I'm not the first can't take the credit . But it is a membership-based primary care practice led by me . I am a double board certified physician and I'm very , very passionate about what I do . We are different from most other practices in that we are membership-based . So , just like your gym or your country club , we don't contract with insurance companies . So that means that I can provide you longer appointment times , more personalized care , more direct access and really a better primary care experience , because I'm not shackled by the limitations and restrictions that a lot of insurance companies do impose upon us , unfortunately .
Speaker 1So I know when I meet with a doc I go in for a checkup . Usually I seem to end up with the PA for a little bit and I might say hello to the doctor . I'm usually in and out in 10 or 15 minutes . Could you describe a little bit more about what an initial consultation with you might be like ?
Speaker 2Sure . So , since we are membership-based , we do welcome the patients and I say patients , but I mean everybody , of course to come in . And the first thing I would want my patients to do is to see the office , to meet with me , to sit down and really talk about what their healthcare goals are and see how we can help meet them , because membership medicine isn't for everybody . It's for those individuals who are really vested in their healthcare , whether they are young and healthy and looking to stay healthy or , unfortunately , have a couple of chronic conditions and just need somebody to really be their advocate or their quarterback . That's what we're here to do . That initial consultation generally goes like that , but the visits in general are anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes .
Speaker 2I don't like to practice rush rush medicine . I like to actually get to know my patients like old fashioned primary care physicians did . You know , I grew up wanting to be a family doc , so you know a family doc , when you're sick or you're not feeling well , you pick up the phone , you text them and you say , hey , doc , I've got this going on , what should we do ? Or somebody to really guide you in your healthcare journey . And staying healthy , maintaining your wellbeing , aging gracefully . Those are all important things . My patients also do have that direct access to me , so if they need me they just pick up the phone , call my cell phone . They can send me a text or email me . When they come into my office , it is just them and I . I don't want to have and I don't have a waiting room full of people . You are generally the only person to come in , unless you choose to bring a family member with you , and it's just a really more personalized experience . I think that's the best way I could put it .
Speaker 1So can you tell us a little bit more about your background ? I mean , I know you're highly credentialed , but was there a moment where you knew you wanted to take the shift and move in this direction ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so I have spent the last almost 12 years really cultivating my passion for caring for others . It's very cheesy and I know it might be cliche , but I've known since I was a child that this is what I wanted to do . And then I knew I wanted to have more training in primary care and be a primary care physician . That is a little bit of a personal journey . I lost my father in the middle of med school and I feel that if he had had a good primary care physician a lot of things could have been prevented and he could have been here with us . So that's pretty much where my passions ignited for primary care .
Speaker 2After residency I was lucky enough to land a nice position at the Cleveland Clinic right here in Parkland . I practiced there for about four years and it was great . It was a great organization . It is a great organization .
Speaker 2Unfortunately , the state of primary care most anywhere you go in the United States now is rush rush medicine and I just got tired of practicing that . I was seeing 20 , 30 patients a day , spending maybe five to seven minutes with each patient , giving them as best care as I humanly possible could like humanly possible could , but just wasn't enough . I would often go home thinking to myself oh no , if I had extra five minutes I could have told Mrs Smith that you know this is what you really need to do . Or , oh geez , did I send in that prescription ? And a lot of those things started to happen . And that's when I knew this is not the type of medicine I wanted to practice , not the type of doctor I wanted to be . So , over the years , just really trying to figure out what is what would make me happy professionally and what I could do in the best interest of my patients , that's what's led me to this journey and where I am today .
Speaker 1Doctor . Nothing cheesy about a young person growing up wanting to be a doctor . Quite frankly , it's aspirational . And can you tell us when people first hear about concierge medicine , are there any myths or misconceptions your patients may have coming in ?
Speaker 2Yes , absolutely so . Being in South Florida , most of us are familiar with concierge medicine . There's many primary care practices and even specialty practices that do practice in this model many primary care practices and even specialty practices that do practice in this model . What makes us different , though , from those practices is that we don't bill insurance at all , so I am not obligated by contracts to Cigna or United or Avmed to practice a certain way or to make sure I'm doing certain things that may be really good on paper but might not be in the best interest of my patient . I don't want to say that insurance is all bad . It's not . It's very important for catastrophic care , but it's not necessary to get good primary care anymore .
Speaker 2At least A lot of the concierge practices that most people are familiar with do charge that annual retainer or that monthly retainer , but then they still charge your insurance , so they're kind of billing you from both ends , I guess for lack of a better word , whereas we are truly like a gym or your country club membership , where you pay a monthly fee or an annual fee and that's pretty much all you pay me I'm not talking to you about copays when you come in .
Speaker 1I'm not talking to you about your deductible , it's just a really straightforward relationship . Now , do you offer the patients any guidance ? Let's say I need a prescription , I'm paying . Do I need to be covered for that , or how does that work ?
Speaker 2Yes , absolutely . So . Just as I was saying , insurance isn't all bad because it does cover a majority , a good majority , of our healthcare items . So if you come in saying insurance isn't all bad because it does cover a good majority of our health care items , so if you come in to see me , you're not paying me directly for my services . I do provide an insurance invoice so that you can submit to your insurance provider and maybe they'll reimburse you , depending on your plan . So that's for my services .
Speaker 2But say you come in and you need antibiotics or you need to get some blood work done , we do do the blood work here in our office . We don't charge a convenience fee for that . That's included in your membership and you have the choice of either paying us a low cash price for the uh , the labs , or we can send them off and have a lab core request wherever you choose to go , bill your insurance from that end . So you can certainly still use your insurance for blood work , for medications , if you need to see a specialist or get some testing done or , god forbid , you have to go to the emergency room or have surgery .
Speaker 1Well , if I can avoid a trip to one of those places , I think I will .
Speaker 2And that's what we truly try to help you do .
Speaker 1You take it . No , I know those people are doing a service work in there and everybody's working hard , but as the consumer or the patient , I think I'd rather wait and get my tires changed . It is very frustrating . So I know you're a doctor . You studied hard for years . I know you worked diligently when you had your residency nonstop . And now you're shifting and you're building a business on top of that . Do you get time to take a break ever ? And if you do , what do you like to do for fun ?
Speaker 2So you're very right in alluding that I have very little time for myself and for just fun . I guess Not that I'm not having fun now . This has been a lifelong dream , so I am happier than I've ever been , even in the most stressful of days , of owning a business , um , but when I do get that free time and I have to I have to give credit to my husband , because he is very , very good with making sure that I I have a shutdown time at night , after which that's it . It's family time . We're not doing any more work , um . And weekends we love to travel . When we can , we like to spend time with our loved
Passion for Primary Care Medicine
Speaker 2ones . Um , honestly , when I get a break , I sometimes just like to sit down with a cup of coffee and maybe read . It's it's rare that I get to do that , because I have so much going on in my brain it's hard to shut it off and read for not work , but that's , it's fun when I get to .
Speaker 1That's a challenge for a lot of us these days .
Speaker 2Yeah . So that's important because we give a lot of importance to our work life in this country . And that has really become detrimental to our health mental and physical . So I really wish more people knew the importance of just you know having that shut off time you need to give your body and your mind rest and relaxation .
Speaker 1You know , I was going to ask for you to share with the listeners , maybe about a hardship or a life challenge that you rose above and you draw upon now , maybe to even help you be more successful or better in what you do . You mentioned your father . You mentioned his passing having some influence on what you're doing now . Could you expand a little bit more on that ?
Speaker 2could you expand a little bit more on that ? Yeah , so I am an only child and my parents are both wonderful , hardworking , loving people and my father was my best friend , my mentor , I mean all the adjectives . He was pretty much everything , and I had a great relationship with my mom too , but I was certainly a daddy's girl . He started to get sick in my second year of medical school and at the time you know well , I'm not going to generalize this , but men tend to minimize their symptoms and you know they're , they're seen as the rock of the family and they want to maintain that , that personality of being the rock of the family . So they don't want to show vulnerability and I think part of that is why he didn't really tell my mom and I that he wasn't feeling well . For a while we started to get testing done , see certain doctors and , long story short , unfortunately when he was diagnosed he was already in stage four cancer and then we lost him a few weeks later and I was I was in the second year of medical school , it was a month before my board exams . It was the last thing I thought was ever going to happen , cause you know your dad's invincible I mean , come on like nothing can happen to your dad , right ? So it was a lot . It was a lot .
Speaker 2I had to decide whether I even wanted to go back to medical school because I had this huge guilt of why didn't I recognize what was going on with my dad ? I should have known . I mean , in retrospect , I knew nothing . I was only in my second year and you know I was not expertised enough to know what was going on . And then I had to handle our family business , my grieving mom . So , yeah , I would say that that is definitely the biggest hardship I faced , and with the support of my family and friends because without them I don't know where I'd be I overcame it and it really it heightens my threshold for stress and I think that's a very , very helpful personality trait to have nowadays , especially with this business . But even now I am still guided by him , my morals , my principles , my business ethic . He was an entrepreneur himself and this is what he saw for me , and so I'm kind of pursuing both our dreams .
Speaker 1That's amazing . Thank you for sharing that and , doctor , I know that this is a passion project for you , as you stated . Can you share something with our listeners that you want them to know about ? Kcore MD .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think the biggest thing I wish people knew , because I know when they hear about my practice they may think to themselves oh , just another primary care doctor or just another primary care office . You know , and I wish I could convey into words my passion so people would see or read or hear that I truly , truly love what I do , that I truly , truly love what I do . We all know there are better ways , especially nowadays . There are better ways to make money , so that is not my driving force .
Speaker 2It's a nice , you know , it's a nice thing to have happen when you're pursuing your passion , but I am truly doing this because I love it and I think that having good primary care is lacking nowadays and , as I mentioned earlier , you know , if we had it in our family , I think it would be different . If I can help or save just one other family from losing a loved one , I think that would be enough for me . I wake up and I feel blessed to be able to do this every day and really I think that's what people knew that good primary care is so important to have , not just when you're sick , but to help you stay healthy and age healthy and be there for your friends and family .
Speaker 1So , doctor , I know that you are located right on the border , really , of Parkland and Coral Springs . How can our listeners reach you if they want to reach out and maybe set up an initial consultation ?
Speaker 2Sure , so our initial consultation is complimentary . I welcome everybody to come in and just have a candid conversation and see if they're comfortable . If patients or if you guys would like to do that , you're more than welcome to schedule conveniently . On our website at wwwkcoremdcom , you can also call or text our office phone number . It's 954-947-0327 . If you text , that goes directly to me , and then there's an email as well that you can reach out to . It's welcome . At kcoremdcom and any of those methods you choose to use , you will be connected with either myself or my medical assistant , christina . She's lovely , she's very personable . You guys will love her as well . I do want to note , though , that I'm only taking 300 patients . Average primary care physicians take anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 patients , so you can see why that personalized care is kind of lost , and I think just taking on a couple hundred is going to help me maintain that ability for my patients .
Speaker 1And just a little side note . So KCORMDcom . For our listeners that's spelled K-K-A-U-R-M-Dcom . Is that right , doctor ?
Speaker 2That's correct .
Speaker 1Well , listen , I appreciate you coming on today . You've been a great guest . Your passion comes through and I appreciate you sharing with us . Doctor , you've been a great guest and folks , I'm David Conway , your host for Local Living . Thank you for joining us today and we'll see you next time .