Direct Primary Care and Concierge Medicine - What's the Difference?

Medical practice models exist in healthcare to cater to the diverse needs of patients and providers. Two models that have gained rapid popularity in the United States are direct primary care and concierge medicine. Both models focus specifically on affordability and personal relationships between providers and patients.

Both systems operate on a fee-for-service model, charging a fixed payment annually, monthly, or quarterly. Both grant special privileges to the patient that are usually not available in traditional healthcare models including direct provider, specialty testing, and thorough and more personalized health assessments, consultations, and care coordination.

Conventional medicine does not provide the physician-patient relationship that you need to maintain optimum health and wellness. Most often, you have to call you’re your physician to check if any appointments are available. Unfortunately, you can rarely find an appointment time that perfectly fits into your schedule. When you arrive at your physician’s office, you have to sit in the waiting area until your physician spares a few minutes to see you.

When you are finally able to see your physician, they can spend a predetermined amount of time with you as they also have appointments with other patients. This visit may leave you feeling unhappy as you couldn’t find time to discuss all your questions and concerns with your doctor.

Studies show that around 89% of Americans aspire to have a relationship with their doctors who knows their medical history and who they can access them when they need them most.

Direct primary care and concierge medicine might seem similar at face value but have contrasting philosophies around the delivery of healthcare.

Let’s take a deeper look at both models so that you understand your options and make an informed decision and decide which one will best suit your needs.

The Membership Fee: Concierge practices usually charge a fee on annual basis. Direct patient care physicians, on the other hand, charge monthly, quarterly, or annually based on the preferences of the patients.

Average Membership Fee: The average fees of direct primary care physicians are around $50-100 a month. Many practices also offer special rates for children and seniors.

Concierge care practices, on the other hand, charge much higher membership fees, usually between $100 and $200 per month.

Philosophies: direct primary care practices merge different healthcare philosophies including conventional, functional, and integrative medicine. Concierge medicine practices, meanwhile, focus solely on practicing traditional care.

Copays Per Visit: As concierge practices also collect insurance, they have to collect co-pays on every visit. Since direct primary care practices do not bill insurance, they are not required to collect any co-pays.

Insurance Regulation: Concierge practices are subject to insurance regulations and documentation requirements like MACRA/MIPS etc. Direct patient care physicians, on the other hand, are not required to follow these regulations.

Patient Panel Size: Patient panel sizes in concierge medicine is fairly smaller than those of direct care practices.

69 percent of responding DPC doctors in a survey said that they treat between 50 and 550 patients. 76 percent of the concierge care physicians said that their patient panel size ranges from 250 to 550.

Office Overhead Costs: Direct primary care practices typically have less overhead, as they rely exclusively on patient membership fees.

Concierge practices, meanwhile, have significantly higher overhead costs, because they accept insurance.

Final Words:

Rapid demand for more thorough and personalized care for patients and greater freedom for practices have led to a major shift in primary care delivery.

While the concierge medicine and direct primary care models are quite similar in many aspects and are often used interchangeably, they are different from each other in many other facets.

Direct primary care is focused more on providing people from middle-income segments the ability to get more personalized care. Such models are more popular in rural areas where there is a shortage of doctors.

The concierge medicine model, on the other hand, is designed to provide people from upscale apartments with easier and quicker access to healthcare. Concierge physicians provide a diverse array of virtual consultation and in-house options and spend longer time with their patients than primary care physicians can offer.

Nova Concierge Med – A Practice Like No Other

Concierge medicine is an excellent option for those looking for a doctor who seeking a greater level of care.

We at Nova Concierge Med provide our patients with individualized and proactive care that combines the best of modern medicine with the personalized feel of family physicians possessing knowledge.

We treat men, women, and children in all aspects of health care for an affordable annual membership fee.

We understand that it takes a great deal of time to build strong and enduring relationships with a patient. That’s why unlike typical visits to family care doctors, which usually last for 15-20 minutes, our physicians spend 45 minutes per visit on average.