AMA J Ethics: Peer-Reviewed Why VIP Services Are Ethically Indefensible in Health Care

AMA J Ethics, POLICY FORUM JAN 2023By Denisse Rojas Marquez, MD, MPP and Hazel Lever, MD, MPHAbstract

Many health care centers make so-called VIP services available to “very important persons” who have the ability to pay. This article discusses common services (eg, concierge primary care, boutique hotel-style hospital stays) offered to VIPs in health care centers and interrogates “trickle down” economic effects, including the exacerbation of inequity in access to health services and the maldistribution of resources in vulnerable communities. This article also illuminates how VIP care contributes to multitiered health service delivery streams that constitute de facto racial segregation and influence clinicians’ conceptions of what patients deserve from them in health care settings.

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• AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(1):E66-71. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2023.66.

SOURCE: https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/why-vip-services-are-ethically-indefensible-health-care/2023-01#:~:text=An%20important%20ethical%20consideration%20for,obligation%20to%20provide%20nondiscriminatory%20care.