Getty ImagesClint Wolford didn't necessarily go out looking to make the switch from traditional medical care to concierge care.
After his doctor, Charles Crump, decided to strike out and start his own practice with concierge medicine, Wolford decided to follow along with him - and immediately saw benefits.
"It's a much more personalized experience,"says Wolford, 52. "And I'm able to spend more time with my doctor."
According to a 2021 Forbes Health article, concierge medicine - sometimes called boutique medicine, retainer-based medicine or platinum practice - allows for exclusive, personalized care with great accessibility and convenience.
As Crump of Chattanooga's Crump Medical explains, concierge care allows a patient to pay a flat rate either every six or 12 months and have unlimited access to his care, including his personal cellphone number, yearround - with no copays or individual office visit charges. The enhanced care is possible because Crump and doctors like him agree to have a limited number of patients.
For Crump, the flat rate is the same for everybody: $900 for six months or $1,620 annually at a 10% discount - rates that he based off of a rough national average.
Each practice is different, so with some concierge practices, the flat rate may be in addition to other fees, such as lab work. And generally speaking, insurance still needs to be maintained for outpatient testing or catastrophic events such as hospitalizations.
But, says Crump, concierge care is great for mitigating issues that can lead to hospitalization if left untreated, and he sees patients for a variety of reasons, from treating common colds to annual physicals.
Similar to concierge medicine, direct primary care, which sometimes is seen as falling under the umbrella of concierge medicine, "doesn't bill insurance at all," explains Dr. Matthew Hitchcock of Chattanooga's Hitchcock Family Medicine, a direct primary care practice. There's still the extended, personalized care with your doctor and membership fee, but rather than deal with insurance, everything – including lab work – is paid for outright.
Direct primary care is sometimes more affordable for those who may be underinsured or uninsured and don't have high deductible insurance plans.
However, according to Crump, concierge care is particularly beneficial for those with high deductibles since every office visit is included in a patient's membership plan.
"I wanted to go back to practicing medicine the way I was taught," says Hitchcock, "the way I'm supposed to practice medicine." While practicing medicine traditionally, he says he felt like he was on a treadmill, trying to fulfill a patient quota each day and focusing on paperwork and insurance filings rather than focusing on patient care. He barely had any real time with his patients.
Crump's experience was similar. "I got to the point where I couldn't listen to my patients because I only had 30 minutes with them," he says.
And he believes patients are drawn to concierge for similarly frustrating experiences with current care models. In the coming years, he believes there will be more of a shift taking place to either concierge or direct primary care.
"Patients are getting tired of our current broken health care model," says Crump. "They want to be heard and cared for. They want you to look at them when they speak and to understand what they are experiencing - pain as well as their joy."