I want to be honest. "24/7 doctor access" sounds like marketing copy. It sounds like the thing you print in a nice font on a brochure, then footnote with "response times may vary" and "subject to availability." It sounds like something that exists in theory but not in practice.
So let me describe what it actually looks like in real life, in the specific ordinary moments that turn out to matter more than you'd expect.
TL;DR
- 24/7 access in this practice means a direct text or call to my cell phone, with a real clinical response, not a triage script
- 5 ordinary scenarios where it changes the outcome: Sunday-night chest tightness, pre-trip medication question, a flagged lab result at 6 p.m., a 78-year-old's 2 a.m. fall, and ongoing chronic-condition management
- Not a luxury, an actual operating model that prevents unnecessary ER visits and turns medical anxiety into clinical clarity
- Patient panel of 50 makes this structurally possible; a 2,500-patient panel doesn't
The Sunday night chest tightness
It's 9:47 p.m. on a Sunday. You've had an uncomfortable tightness in your chest for the past hour. It started after a stressful week and a heavier than usual dinner. You've had something like this before. It's probably nothing.
But it's your chest.
Without a concierge doctor: You have three options. Wait until Monday and try to get a same-day appointment. Call an after-hours nurse line and explain symptoms to someone reading from a script. Or drive to the ER, sit for three or four hours, have your blood drawn and your heart monitored, and leave at 1 a.m. with a $3,200 bill and a diagnosis of acid reflux.
With a concierge doctor: You send a text. In 15 minutes your phone rings. I know you, I know your stress level this month, I know you've had something like this before. We walk through the symptom picture. Are you sweating? Is it radiating anywhere? How's your breathing? Within a few minutes there's a real clinical assessment happening, not triage theater.
Maybe the answer is: "This sounds like GERD and anxiety. Take an antacid, try this breathing exercise, and text me in an hour if anything changes." Maybe it's: "Go get checked out tonight. I'll call ahead." Either way, you know. The uncertainty lifts.
That's what 24/7 access actually is.
The medication question before the trip
You're leaving for Peru on Thursday. High altitude, different time zone, a long flight. You take a blood pressure medication and a daily aspirin. You've been reading things online that worry you about altitude and blood pressure, but you can't tell what's real and what's forum anxiety.
Without a concierge doctor: You call the office on Monday. You explain the concern to the receptionist, who takes a message for the nurse, who calls back Wednesday afternoon with a brief answer that doesn't quite address your actual question. Or you just go and hope for the best.
With a concierge doctor: You send a message Saturday, whenever the thought occurs to you. By Sunday you have a real answer: what to watch for at altitude, whether to adjust your dose, what to bring just in case, which symptoms warrant cutting the trip short. You leave on Thursday actually prepared.
This kind of thing happens more than you'd think. Travel questions, medication questions, "is this rash normal," "should I be worried about this." Not emergencies. Just the background noise of having a body and a life. With traditional care these either get dropped or turn into mini-crises. With a concierge doctor, they get handled.
The abnormal lab result at 6 p.m.
Your phone buzzes. Lab results are in. You open the portal and see "ABNORMAL" flagged next to something you don't fully understand. Calcium elevated. A1C higher than expected. Something about kidney function with a little arrow pointing up.
Without a concierge doctor: The office closed at 5. You have no way to reach anyone until tomorrow. You spend the evening on WebMD convincing yourself you have three different cancers. You sleep badly. You call in the morning, wait on hold, and eventually speak with a nurse who reads a brief explanation and says the doctor will follow up.
With a concierge doctor: I saw the result before you did, or I see the portal notification at the same time and reach out first. Either way, the call comes before the panic sets in. The result gets explained in plain language: what it means, why it happened, what the next step is, and whether it's actually worrying. Usually it isn't. But you don't spend a night not knowing.
The 2 a.m. call when a parent falls
You're in Boca. Your mother is visiting for the holidays, staying in the guest bedroom. It's 2:15 a.m. and she fell getting up to use the bathroom. She says she's fine. She probably is fine. But she's 78, she's on a blood thinner, and she hit her hip.
You're scared.
Without a concierge doctor: You call 911 because you don't know what else to do. That means an ambulance, a midnight ER visit, hours of waiting, and an exhausted, frightened 78-year-old being poked and prodded until dawn. Maybe necessary. Maybe not.
With a concierge doctor: You call me. I ask you to describe how she fell, what she hit, whether she lost consciousness, how she's moving now. I walk through a brief assessment. If there's any real concern (head injury, suspected hip fracture, neurologic change), the answer is unambiguous: call 911. If she's moving well, thinking clearly, and the fall was mechanical, you get clear instructions for monitoring overnight, what to watch for, and when to escalate. You go back to sleep.
The difference isn't that I have magical powers. It's that you have access to clinical judgment at the moment you need it, instead of at 9 a.m. the next business day. (And if a morning house call makes sense to lay eyes on her, I come.)
The chronic condition that needs more than 15 minutes
This one is less dramatic and matters just as much.
You have hypertension and some anxiety. Each year you see your doctor for an annual visit. Fifteen minutes. Prescriptions get renewed. You leave without quite addressing everything you wanted to talk about.
With a concierge doctor: The relationship is different from the start. I actually know you, not from a chart but from real conversations over time. When your blood pressure spikes during a difficult stretch at work, you mention it and get a response that accounts for the full picture. When you want to try tapering off a medication, you have a partner to do that with. When something changes, you don't have to fight for an appointment to discuss it.
This is what changes most about 24/7 access: it's not just emergencies. It's the ongoing management of your health with someone who's actually present for it.
What does it cost?
A fair question. Concierge memberships vary by practice, typically in the range of $2,400 to $5,000 a year, roughly $200 to $400 per month. That sounds significant until you compare it to:
- A single ER visit: $2,000 to $5,000 or more
- Two urgent care visits: $300 to $600
- The cost (financial and psychological) of getting inadequate answers
For my specific fee, ask me directly. I'd rather tell you in context than post a number that doesn't explain itself.
Most patients also keep their insurance for hospital care, specialists, and catastrophic events. Concierge membership covers the primary care piece and the 24/7 access that makes primary care actually work. My practice is private-pay; I don't bill insurance. (How this interacts with Medicare, if you're 65 or older.)
Is it right for you?
Not everyone needs concierge care. If you're young, healthy, and rarely need medical attention, standard primary care may serve you fine.
But if you have chronic conditions that require ongoing management, a family with kids or elderly parents at home, a schedule that makes "call during office hours" impossible, a history of unnecessary ER visits because you had no other option, or a genuine desire for real access to a physician who knows you, the 24/7 piece stops being a luxury and starts being the point. (How to evaluate any concierge practice covers the criteria worth using when comparing.)
Frequently Asked Questions
How is 24/7 access different from an after-hours nurse triage line?
A triage line connects you to staff working from a script, who escalate to a covering on-call physician you've never met. 24/7 access in this practice means a direct text or call to me. I know your history, your medications, your baseline, and the stress you've been under. The clinical assessment is real, not standardized.
What's the typical response time when I text or call after hours?
For non-urgent questions, usually within an hour. For something that sounds clinically concerning, immediately. Patients are coached to text "URGENT" in the message when it's time-sensitive so the right priority gets attached.
What about real emergencies?
For life-threatening symptoms (chest pain with sweating or shortness of breath, stroke symptoms, severe injury, severe shortness of breath, anaphylaxis), call 911 first, then text me. The role of concierge access is everything below the 911 threshold, which is most of what people are actually unsure about at 10 p.m.
What if I rarely need to call my doctor, is concierge worth it for me?
The membership pays for ongoing primary care and the structural availability, not for usage. Patients who rarely call still benefit from longer annual visits, faster diagnostics when something does come up, direct test-result review, and the ability to reach a physician who knows them when life eventually does require it.
Is the membership covered by insurance?
No. The membership is private-pay; insurance does not reimburse it. You keep your existing commercial insurance or Medicare for everything outside the practice (labs, imaging, specialists, hospitalization, prescriptions). Most patients use their insurance normally for those services.
About the Author
Dr. Ben Soffer, DO is a board-certified physician practicing concierge primary care in Boca Raton, Florida. He caps his practice at 50 patients, which is what makes a direct-cell-phone, real-clinical-response model structurally possible.
If you want to see what it's like
My practice is built around this kind of access for patients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and throughout Palm Beach County.
- Call: 561-468-6981
- Email: info@drbensoffer.com
- Or reach out through the contact form
