A new type of doctors office is about to open in the metro and it promises to bring a new niche to the health care community.

The practice promises an end to voicemail, packed waiting rooms and the all the hassle that goes along with being sick.

So what’s the catch? While the entire country is buzzing about the health care industry and how to fix it, the KCTV5 investigative team has uncovered the story of an exclusive members only medical practice.

Two local doctors are about to launch one form of the answer to the overburdened health care system. The new form of practice promises better service, unprecedented physician access and a focus on preventative medicine.

In St. Louis, patient Norman Senaldi has his blood pressure taken by his doctor and not by a nurse or physician’s assistant. The doctor also answers Senaldi’s telephone calls.

“I have his cell,” he said. “If I have a problem, I call him and I come right in. No waiting.”

Senaldi doesn’t wait to see his physician -- Dr. Paul Stein -- because he pays an annual fee not to. Dr. Stein is one of about 350 doctors across the country now affiliated with a company called MDVIP.

Here’s how the program works. An individual pays a $1,500 a year access fee to belong. The fee buys the patient lengthy, thorough exams and testing. It also gives a person 24-hour access to their physician’s cell phone number.

Each doctor, in turn, dramatically drops their patient load from around 2,500 patients to about 600. That means around 75 percent of patients have to find a new doctor, unless they are among the 25 percent that pay for the premium service.

“I bought a little access to him,” Senaldi said. “Is that greedy? I dunno.”

It’s a system -- some call it concierge medicine -- that’s been in place on the East and West coasts for years and is finally reaching Kansas City.

On Dec. 8, two long-time Overland Park doctors will move their practice and start charging a membership fee for premium medical service.

MDVIP stands for “value in prevention.” The company said it’s a model that can save lives.

But KCTV5 found one patient who said he’s not feeling like a VIP with the service.

“I looked at the bottom line and it said put your credit card info here,” said Stoney Bogan of Merriam, Kan. “The annual membership fee was $1,500. I was dumbfounded.”

Bogan is a 10-year patient of one of the doctors about to switch to MDVIP. Bogan said when he got the letter describing a new focus on prevention he logged onto the doctor’s Web site to sign up. The letter never mentioned cost and Bogan said he was shocked when he got to the end of the paperwork and saw the price tag.

“I live on a budget like everyone else,” he said. “When I saw it was gonna cost this much I thought, ‘What am I going to do? Not buy a car this year? Or am I going to be abandoned by another doc?’”

KCTV5 talked with Dr. Andy Davis. He and partner, Dr. Michael Monoco, are the two doctors who have signed on to the premium service.

Davis said MDVIP is an answer to an overburdened health care system, which is aimed at reacting to disease rather than preventing it. He said if more doctors had more time to spend with patients like they used to all Americans would be healthier.

Medical ethicist Dr. Art Caplan doesn’t deny the health and cost benefits of the new form of service. But he said there’s something wrong with our health care system when people who can afford it start paying a premium for the type of service that should be available to everyone.

“I can understand why patients want it,” he said. I can even understand why providers want it. It’s just a situation that is basically creating a formal first class, just like we have on airplanes, in health care, and in the long run I thinks it’s not the solution for the many, many problems that the health system has. It’s a bad short-term Band-Aid.”

MDVIP denied they cater to the affluent. They told KCTV5 that they are an approved Medicare provider and their doctors service patients from all walks of life and income levels.

KCTV5 talked with a Prairie Village couple who have already signed up. They believe at their age it could be the difference between life and death. They've agreed to take two of the 600 available slots the doctor has available under the new system.

Back in Merriam, Bogan said he’d love to remain a patient, too, but he said in this economy he can’t afford to pay for preventative medicine. He said he will reluctantly start seeing a new doctor when his physician makes the switch in December.

“I don’t want to find another doctor, I really don’t,” he said.

The local doctors start their new practice Dec. 8. The patients who don’t sign on with MDVIP will be able to start seeing a new doctor in the same building who has agreed to absorb the patient load.

Click here to see how health care startups such as MDVIP are changing the face of medicine.