Patients ask me this all the time. What's the difference between direct primary care (DPC) and concierge medicine, and which one fits me? Both react to the same problem: traditional primary care is rushed, fragmented, and hard to reach when you actually need it. They solve it differently.
What direct primary care is
DPC practices charge a monthly fee, usually $50 to $200, paid directly to the physician. No insurance billing for primary care services. The doctor keeps a smaller panel than traditional practice, commonly 400 to 800 patients, which allows longer visits and same- or next-day appointments.
What the membership covers: routine primary care, basic preventive care, and often some in-office labs and minor procedures. What it doesn't cover: specialists, hospital care, advanced imaging, and in most cases prescriptions. For those, you still need insurance or you pay out of pocket.
DPC fits generally healthy people who want more time with their doctor and are willing to pair it with a high-deductible plan or a health-share for everything else.
What concierge medicine is
Concierge practices charge an annual membership. The range is wide, roughly $1,500 to $25,000 a year, depending on what's included. The fee pays for access and the physician's time. Most concierge doctors still bill insurance for services insurance covers. I don't. My practice is private-pay, which keeps the relationship simple and keeps me accountable to you rather than to an insurance company.
What that buys in my practice: I cap at 50 patients. That's much smaller than a typical concierge panel and a fraction of DPC. Appointments run 30 to 60 minutes, sometimes longer. You get my cell phone. Text or call, any hour, and you reach me. Same-day visits are the norm, including house calls across Palm Beach County. I handle specialist coordination, hospital follow-up, and imaging or lab logistics so you don't have to.
How the two models compare
The meaningful differences come down to panel size, access, and scope.
| Traditional | DPC | Concierge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panel size | 2,000 to 3,000 | 400 to 800 | 300 to 600 (my practice: 50) |
| Appointment length | 10 to 15 min | 20 to 30 min | 30 to 60+ min |
| Same-day visits | No | Often | Yes |
| After-hours direct contact | No | Varies | Yes (my cell, 24/7) |
| House calls | No | Rare | Standard in my practice |
| Cost | n/a | $50 to $200/mo | $125 to $2,000+/mo |
DPC gets you more time and easier access for routine primary care at a low price. Concierge adds same-day access, direct physician contact around the clock, a much smaller panel, and care coordination that extends into hospital, specialist, and home. It costs more because there's more of me per patient.
Which one fits you
A few honest questions.
Do you mainly need a better primary care experience, or do you need a doctor who can actually navigate the system with you when things get complicated? If it's the first, DPC probably does the job. If it's the second, concierge is closer to what you're looking for. Think chronic conditions, aging parents, frequent specialist needs, a schedule where you can't spend half a day on hold.
Can you accept that your DPC doctor likely won't be rounding on you if you're admitted, won't be calling your cardiologist directly, and won't be at your house at 9 p.m. when your spouse spikes a fever? If that gap matters to you, it's a concierge question.
Questions worth asking either kind of practice
- How many patients does the physician actually carry?
- Who answers calls after hours, and how fast?
- What's in the fee and what costs extra?
- If you get hospitalized, what does your doctor do?
- How long has the practice operated this way?
Where I come out
DPC is a real improvement over traditional primary care for people whose needs are relatively straightforward. Concierge is a different category. It's built for people who want a physician embedded in their health and available when it matters, not just when the schedule allows. Neither is universally better. The right answer depends on how complex your life is, how much the access actually changes the way you'd use medicine, and what you can afford.
If you want to talk through whether my practice is the right fit, reach out. I'll tell you honestly whether concierge makes sense for you, or whether DPC or a conventional plan fits better.
