Equipo editorial de LACE · Publicado
Concierge medicine is a model in which a patient pays a physician or practice a recurring fee in return for direct, unhurried access. The fee buys time and availability: longer appointments, same-day contact, and a doctor who knows the whole history. It does not, on its own, pay for hospital care.
How concierge medicine works
A conventional primary care physician may be responsible for two thousand patients or more. A concierge physician limits the practice to a few hundred, and the membership fee is what makes that arithmetic possible. The model is usually dated to 1996, when a practice called MD² opened in Seattle and offered a small number of families round-the-clock access to their doctor.
What a member receives varies by practice, but the core is consistent.
- Appointments that last as long as the question needs, often an hour for an annual review.
- The physician's direct phone number, and an answer the same day.
- A comprehensive yearly assessment that goes well beyond a standard check-up.
- Coordination with specialists, including getting an appointment sooner than the public route allows.
- Home, office or hotel visits where the practice offers them.
Concierge medicine, direct primary care and private insurance
The three are often confused. Direct primary care also charges a flat membership fee, but it is priced for ordinary households and usually replaces insurance billing for primary care altogether. Concierge practices tend to charge more, keep smaller patient lists, and often bill insurance for the consultation as well as charging the fee.
Private health insurance is a different thing entirely. It pays for treatment. It does not give you a physician who answers the phone. Most people with a concierge doctor keep their insurance, because a membership does not cover surgery, hospital stays or cancer treatment.
What it costs
Fees are set by each practice and vary widely by country and city. In the United States, published annual fees run from under two thousand dollars at large networks to tens of thousands at the most exclusive practices. The figure to compare is not the fee itself but what is included: how many patients the physician keeps, whether out-of-hours contact reaches the doctor or a call centre, and whether specialist coordination is part of the service or an extra.
Where the model stops, and what a medical concierge adds
A concierge physician is one doctor in one city. That works until the problem is rare, the right specialist is in another country, or the patient spends half the year somewhere else. A local practice can refer you; it cannot usually arrange a consultation in Zurich, a second opinion in Boston and the travel between them.
This is the gap an international medical concierge fills. Instead of one physician on retainer, the service is access: identifying the right specialist anywhere in the world, securing the appointment, and managing the records, logistics and follow-up. LACE's medical concierge brings international specialists to a client's home or chosen location, and bespoke medical travel arranges care abroad from door to door.
For people whose aim is prevention more than treatment, the same idea applies to longevity: a physician-led programme that follows them between homes, described under longevity private services.
Questions to ask before you join a practice
A membership is a commitment of a year or more, so it is worth asking the practice plainly.
- How many patients does my physician look after?
- Who answers at two in the morning: the doctor, a colleague, or a service?
- Which hospitals does the physician have admitting privileges at?
- What happens when I am abroad?
- What is not included, and what does it cost?
Preguntas frecuentes
Is concierge medicine worth it?
It is worth it when access is the problem: frequent travel, a complex history that needs one physician to hold it together, or simply no time to wait. It adds little for someone who is rarely ill and has a good doctor already.
Does concierge medicine replace health insurance?
No. The membership fee pays for access to the physician. Hospital care, surgery, imaging and specialist treatment are still paid for by insurance or by the patient.
What is the difference between a concierge doctor and a medical concierge?
A concierge doctor is a single physician you retain. A medical concierge is a coordinating service that finds and arranges the right specialists, often across several countries, and manages everything around the appointment.
Este artículo es información general, no consejo médico. Las decisiones sobre diagnóstico y tratamiento corresponden a un médico cualificado.