What’s the difference between a traditional primary care doctor and a concierge primary care doctor?
It’s a good question. It’s been nearly 20 years since the first concierge medicine practices opened and it’s still not a well-known or understood concept in health care.
The difference is not in the doctor. Primary care doctors, regardless of the type of practice, are typically family or internal medicine physicians. Within both traditional and concierge practices, you’ll find capable doctors who strive to provide the best possible care to their patients.
The difference between a traditional primary care doctor and a concierge doctor is the environment in which they practice.
Concierge doctors see fewer overall patients.
The typical primary care physician maintains a patient panel of at least 3,000 to 4,000 and their revenue comes mostly through medical services paid for by health insurance reimbursements. If they aren’t seeing enough patients each day, they probably aren’t making enough money to stay in business.
By contrast, the membership fee that patients pay allows concierge doctors to reduce the size of their panel. Typically, a concierge physician has a panel of 400-600 patients and sees 6-10 patients per day.
Concierge doctors spend more time with each patient during appointments.
In traditional primary care, doctors try to squeeze 30-40 patients into an 8-10 hour work day. Factor in time for lunch and administrative tasks and the math becomes simple: it’s hard to spend more than 10 minutes with most patients.
Because concierge doctors reduce the size of their patient panel, they can also reduce the number of appointments they have per day and increase the amount of time with each patient. Most concierge practices guarantee appointments that last at least 30 minutes.
Concierge doctors dedicate time each day for sudden acute care appointments.
One of the main complaints about traditional primary care is the inability for patients to quickly get an appointment when they need it the most — when they are sick.
While a traditional primary care doctor’s schedule might be booked to capacity days and weeks in advance, concierge doctors keep a block of time open each day for sudden, acute care visits. At PartnerMD, we guarantee same-day or next-day scheduling for acute care visits.
Concierge doctors guarantee 24/7/365 access to care.
Another complaint about traditional primary care is that patients can’t get the care they need when they need it.
People don’t get sick only within business hours, and in traditional primary care, this can lead to lost voicemails and trips to urgent care. Concierge care offers access when you need it.
Concierge doctors provide more in-depth annual physicals.
With a traditional doctor, you may have a 20–30-minute physical with the same basic tests and screenings every year. The results are uploaded into a portal or delivered by a nurse over the phone.
With a concierge doctor, annual physicals typically last at least 60-90 minutes, but some practices offer even more advanced tests and screenings. Then, when it’s time to review results, a concierge doctor has the time to review them in detail and explain what they mean.
For patients that are frustrated by the all-too-common health care experience of waiting for long periods of time to spend a very short amount of time with a physician, concierge medicine is a welcome alternative ̶ and often more affordable than expected. Learn more at www.partnermd.com/what-is-concierge-medicine.
