DPC vs. Concierge

DPC vs. Concierge

Direct Primary Care (DPC) and Concierge Medicine are often confused. Both models accept payments directly from their patients, both have smaller panel sizes (allowing for improved relationships with patients), and both tend to advocate for advanced communication between the doctor and patient (via text, email, after-hours calls, virtual visits, etc.).  To make matters even more confusing, some practices that follow a DPC model will advertise as “concierge” for brand recognition. So how, then, is one to know the difference?

If you look closely at the standard DPC setup and compare it to the standard Concierge set up, there are a few key differences:

1. The “Membership Fee”. In concierge practices, the membership fee is traditionally an annual fee; In DPC, your membership fee is traditionally a fee charged monthly, quarterly, or annually.
2. Average Membership Cost. Concierge doctors often charge more in annual fees than the average DPC doctor. Although the average fee is around $1,800 a year, some concierge practices charge as much as $25,000 annually! DPC fees typically range from $600 to $1,500 per year.
3. Insurance. Generally, concierge doctors also accept insurance; in addition to the annual fee, they bill insurance for each patient encounter.  This means that patients may get “surprise bills” several months later after insurance pays their portion (of an amount typically not revealed to you until you get your bill). With DPC, insurance is not billed.
4. Copays. With concierge, because they accept and bill insurance, they are required to collect copays at each visit.  DPC clinics do not bill insurance, so there are no required copays for each visit. (That said, there are some exceptions to this rule as some practices charge a “per visit” fee.)
5. Patient panel size. Both concierge and DPC traditionally maintain a patient panel of 600 patients or less. This enables both provider types to have longer, more in-depth appointments with their patients, and a deeper, more satisfying relationship between doctor and patient.
6. Insurance Regulation. Because concierge doctors typically bill insurance, they are held to several insurance regulations including MACRA/MIPS and other documentation requirements. Since DPC does not bill insurance, they are not required to follow these regulations, enabling the physician to document more efficiently and not waste their time with checkbox documentation.
7. Office overhead costs. Concierge physicians typically have higher overhead costs, owed in large part to their acceptance of insurance which is required to negotiate insurance contracts, bill insurance, process insurance payments, and then resubmit bills when the insurance fails to pay in a timely fashion (which happens all the time). Since DPC physicians do not bill insurance, they do not require staffing and overhead to manage these revenue cycles, resulting in lower overhead.
8. Culture: Concierge practices often market services like “advanced testing” or more customer experience services like special parking spaces to justify their memberships. DPC practices focus more on care navigation and price transparency.