The tedious requirements of the traditional healthcare system have led some resourceful doctors to pursue other avenues in practicing medicine in a less stressful manner. Concierge medicine practice is one of the most promising and innovative results that arose from this movement.
The general idea behind concierge medicine is simple - to lessen the need for doctors to adhere to the tedious administrative rules and duties of traditional insurance-based models by asking patients to pay an annual fee. In exchange, patients get a more personalized and higher quality healthcare.
Concierge doctors are the primary care physicians who run their practice or becomes affiliate with some network to offer their services to patients directly in exchange for a membership fee, and may also bill for specific services covered by insurance. Year-long contracts typically bind concierge doctors and their patients.
Concierge doctors offer their services to patients based on a membership fee basis. Patients can either pay in full or in regular installments over the year. In exchange, they would receive a personalized kind of healthcare that doctors in traditional practices can't provide due to the copious administrative requirements of traditional healthcare.
At its most basic iteration, the annual fee of concierge doctors covers an in-depth, comprehensive physical with screenings.
For higher-end concierge practices, the fees can also cover procedures, and other treatments that go beyond traditional insurance or government healthcare plans usually support. A few concierge practices even go so far as having doctors accompany patients to specialist visits.
Concierge medicine is tailored for patients who prioritize quality and convenience over the cost of quality healthcare. Therefore, fees for concierge practices tend to be higher than Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices.
Speaking of differences with DPCs, doctors with a concierge medicine practice often choose to continue participating with insurance plans and government healthcare reimbursement programs, unlike most DPC practices which typically do not bill insurance.
To be specific, patients of Concierge doctors may be able to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) for qualified medical expenses as defined by the IRS, though typically not for the membership fee itself. However, since many concierge doctors are still affiliated with insurance networks, concierge doctors retain the authority to refer patients to specialists within the patient's insurance company's network and still keep the patient's insurance coverage.
The annual retainer that patients have to pay their doctors go a long way in improving the working conditions for doctors. It allows them to see fewer patients while still earning a competitive income.
For many doctors, the traditional healthcare model requires them to fulfil copious amounts of paperwork on top of practicing medicine. This often results in the lack of face-time with patients throughout the workday.
The exhaustion from seeing hundreds of patients and the lack of actual face-time with each patient can greatly decrease the quality of healthcare a doctor can provide.
On the other hand, concierge doctors are free to choose how many patients to see in a day. This gives them a healthy work schedule that does not lead to fatigue and exhaustion at the end of every workday. In other words, concierge doctors are more at liberty to practice their beloved craft as they see fit.
Concierge doctors have lighter loads than traditional doctors, so they have more face-time with patients. This allows them to have a clearer assessment of their patient's health and have the time to develop a better quality treatment plan.
The inefficiencies of the traditional healthcare model is well documented. Plenty of doctors are overworked and underpaid due to the paperwork they have to do on top of practicing medicine.
Concierge doctors can spend their time on more productive matters such as looking over charts and patient history precisely because they see fewer patients in a day compared to their traditional medicine counterparts.
The significantly lowered number of patients also goes a long way in letting concierge doctors have more time for themselves.
Concierge doctors see a lot fewer patients compared to their traditional practice counterparts. This is because they're not solely reliant on their patient's insurance companies to get paid for services rendered if they also charge a membership fee.
Instead, a concierge physician's income primarily comes from their patients through an annual retainer, supplemented by insurance payments for covered services if they choose to bill insurance.
Because of this, concierge medicine doctors get to build meaningful, but more importantly, productive relationships with their patients. The type of doctor-patient relationship that can forge in a concierge practice is a lot deeper and more committed than traditional insurance-based healthcare.
The annual fees display the shared commitment of both concierge physician and patient to improve the patient's health.
This shared commitment improves the communication between doctor and patient, which, in turn, makes for a better overall experience for both parties.
Patients would become more comfortable sharing about their lifestyle and other aspects of their lives that affect their health, making it a lot easier for physicians to assess and prescribe the right treatment program.
Concierge physicians can achieve good financial security and independence among doctors if all works out. It's not only that concierge doctors earn more per patient visit or consultation when factoring in the membership fee.
They're also assured of a more predictable income stream for at least a year because of the year-long contracts patients have to agree to. For doctors who transition fully to a concierge model, this income from membership fees and any billed services constitutes their practice revenue, rather than being an addition to a separate traditional practice salary.
Normally, concierge physicians charge about $125-$300 per month on average, with some higher-end practices charging $500 or significantly more, depending on the service. So, suppose we're to estimate the annual revenue potential from memberships: A doctor with 300 patients paying an average of $200/month ($2,400/year) could generate $720,000 in membership revenue, from which practice expenses and physician income are drawn. Earnings vary widely based on panel size, fees, services offered, and operational costs; it is not a simple calculation of membership fees directly translating to salary "on top of" other earnings.
Because concierge doctors already earn a significant amount from their practice's annual membership fees, they're often not as beholden to insurance companies for their entire revenue stream. The insurance companies tend to ask for copious amounts of documentation and sometimes even infringing on the doctor's treatment strategies. Therefore, doctors in the concierge medicine practice are generally more free to do what is best for their patients.
Unlike in Direct Primary Care, concierge medicine doctors are not required to opt out of traditional insurance-based healthcare. This means concierge physicians can enjoy the best of both DPC and traditional healthcare medicine by potentially billing insurance alongside membership fees.
In addition, concierge doctors don't have to sacrifice their insurance networks (if they choose to remain in them) and can build a new income structure based on that coveted recurring membership fee.
Concierge doctors are also more flexible because they can work as little or as much as they want by cutting back or adding to the number of patients for the year, depending on their needs.
Another important financial aspect of a concierge doctor's flexibility is setting their annual rates. This means they can adjust it for clients who have different requirements for their concierge physicians.
Concierge doctors are also not limited in how they can see the patients. They're free to use modern technology such as video calls, e-mails, traditional phone calls, and other forms of digital communication to serve their patients. This means less time wasted on commutes and more time for productive endeavors.
Now that we've established the benefits of starting a concierge medicine practice, it leaves us with an important question. How do we set one up?
The first step is to assess the market. In this stage, the question one has to ask is whether the demographic of the area you wish to start your practice can sustain a concierge practice. Consider the income, age, and other socioeconomic factors when tackling this question.
Now that you've considered the feasibility of sustaining a concierge practice, it's time to craft a business plan. At this stage, it's important to figure out how many patients you need to service to sustain a level of profit that you're comfortable with. Concierge practitioners also wear the hat of a businessman, after all.
More importantly, however, this is the stage to formulate your concierge practice's mission, vision, and guiding principles. From the target market and pricing to the number of patients and packages you will include in your concierge practice, these should all be considered at this early stage.
HIPAA, commercial liability policies, and other regulatory and legal requirements must be filed before you can even begin operating a concierge practice. Research what is needed in your area and acquire the necessary documents.
Be it investing in highly qualified administrative staff or high-tech communications technologies, concierge practices must serve patients well.
One of the most crucial steps in starting a concierge practice is finding the patients. In addition, concierge doctors need to be able to market their practice well to meet financial targets.
Luckily, since concierge medicine allows for such a personalized type of medicine, it's common for concierge practices to gain traction through word-of-mouth. However, other marketing avenues can help in helping a practice grow.It's important to look at recent data for physician compensation, as older reports, such as Medscape's 2017 Physician Salary Analysis Report, are now outdated. The 2017 report showed a small difference, with general practitioners averaging $294,000 and concierge model doctors averaging $300,000. More current analyses (like Medscape's 2025 report on general physician compensation trends) indicate modest overall pay increases for physicians in recent years. Specific, recent, large-scale comparative salary data between fully concierge and traditional primary care physicians can be nuanced and depends on the source and methodology. However, the concierge model aims to provide a competitive income, often with a better work-life balance, by restructuring how care is delivered and paid for, rather than simply being a small percentage increase over a traditional salary.
Long hours and incommensurate pay in traditional medical practice produce a lot of burnt-out doctors. Luckily, there's a better way to practice medicine with concierge practices.
It gives doctors flexibility, financial security, and most importantly, the ability to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. This is why it's important for doctors with the grit and stomach for running their own business should at least consider going into concierge practice.
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