Naples has a growing number of concierge and membership medical practices, and they are not built the same way. Panel size, what a membership includes, and how a practice coordinates specialists can vary widely from one practice to the next. That is true even when the marketing sounds similar. These ten questions give a family a way to compare practices on substance rather than on a brochure. They point past general promises of more time and more attention, toward what a specific practice can deliver.

Why Panel Size Is Important

Panel size, how many patients one physician actively manages, drives almost everything else on this list. A physician following a few hundred patients has more time per visit. That physician also has more room for a same-day opening, and more bandwidth to coordinate specialist care personally, than a physician following several thousand. MDVIP, one of the largest concierge medicine networks in the country, states on its own site that its affiliated physicians typically manage panels of about 600 patients. That is well under the range of a conventional primary care practice. A practice that will not give a clear answer on panel size is worth a second look before anything else on this list gets evaluated.

The Ten Questions Worth Asking Any Practice

  • What is your panel size, and is it capped? A number, not a range, is the useful answer here.
  • How quickly can I get an appointment when something comes up? Same-day or next-day appointments should be a standing feature, not an exception the practice makes for urgent cases.
  • Can I reach my physician directly between visits, by text or call, rather than only through a general office line?
  • What happens to my medical records when I switch practices, and who is responsible for requesting them from my previous physicians?
  • Who manages coordination with specialists, home lab draws, and follow-up on test results? At Naples Concierge Health, that coordination is handled by the physician's office rather than left to the complex patient to track down.
  • What preventive or performance-focused services are included beyond a standard annual physical?
  • Does the same physician see every member of my household, across ages, or does the practice split care between a pediatric and an adult side?
  • How does the practice handle care while I am traveling or living somewhere else part of the year? A seasonal resident should ask this before, not after, joining.
  • How is after-hours or urgent access handled when the office is closed?
  • What does membership include, and what does it leave out? A practice should be able to describe scope clearly without leading with a dollar figure.

What a Strong Answer Sounds Like, Question by Question

The value of these ten questions comes from the specificity of the answer, not the answer itself. A practice can respond to every question without committing to anything specific, and learning to hear the difference is worth a few examples.

  • Panel size: a strong answer gives a number, or a firm range, for that specific physician. A weak answer says the practice keeps panels small without saying how small, or answers with the number of physicians in the practice rather than patients per physician.
  • Medical records: a strong answer names who requests records and when a physician reviews them before a first visit. A weak answer says records get handled without describing who is responsible for that or when it happens.
  • Family care: a strong answer states a specific starting age for children. A weak answer says the practice welcomes families without saying which ages it sees.
  • After-hours access: a strong answer names a specific mechanism, a direct line, a message that reaches the physician, an on-call arrangement. A weak answer says the practice is always available without describing how that works at eleven at night.
  • Membership scope: a strong answer lists what is included and what is not. A weak answer redirects to a sales conversation before answering the question at all.

When to Ask, and When to Ask Again

These questions matter most before joining a practice, but they are worth revisiting after the fact too. The first few months of membership are a reasonable point to check whether the answers given during the sales conversation matched what happened: was the promised panel size real, did records arrive and get reviewed the way it was described, and did a same-day appointment happen the first time it was needed. A practice that is worth staying with should stand up to that kind of follow-up.

It is also worth asking again if a family's situation changes. Adding a newborn, bringing an aging parent into the same practice, or planning a move that turns someone into a part-time resident each changes which of the ten questions matters most. A practice that answers well for an individual member does not automatically answer the same way once that member is coordinating care for an entire household.

Why These Questions Matter More Than a Practice's Marketing

Almost every concierge practice advertises more time and more attention. The ten questions above are what separate a practice that delivers on that promise from one that has simply adopted the language of it. A 2018 study in the Annals of Family Medicine followed more than 1.4 million Medicare patients. It was led by researcher Andrew Bazemore and colleagues. Patients with the highest continuity of care, meaning they consistently saw the same primary care physician over time, had 14.1 percent lower healthcare costs than patients with more fragmented care. They also had 16.1 percent lower odds of hospitalization. That continuity is what a smaller, well-coordinated panel is built to protect. A specific answer to each of the ten questions is a reasonable way to test whether a given practice is structured to provide it.

Where Naples Concierge Health Fits

Naples Concierge Health answers each of the ten questions the same way for every prospective member. Physicians Dr. Jonathan Marsh and Dr. Danielle Grossman-Stuart maintain a deliberately smaller panel than a traditional practice. Dr. Grossman-Stuart sees patients starting at age six, so one physician can follow an entire family. Specialist care and home blood draws, available with an optional membership tier, are coordinated directly through the office. The full range of what membership includes is outlined on the membership page.

Ready to Ask These Questions in Naples?

If you are comparing concierge practices in Naples, book a gap assessment with Naples Concierge Health and see how the practice answers each of the ten questions above. Or browse everything Naples Concierge Health offers to see the fuller picture first.

You might also be interested in reading:

More from this series:

Frequently Asked Questions

How many patients does a concierge physician typically see?

It varies by practice, which is why panel size is worth asking about directly rather than assuming. MDVIP-affiliated physicians typically manage panels of about 600 patients, and individual concierge practices set their own target depending on the scope of care they coordinate. A traditional primary care panel often runs into the thousands.

Is a smaller panel the same thing as better care?

A smaller panel is what makes more time per visit and faster access possible, but it does not guarantee either on its own. That is why the other nine questions matter: they test whether a practice has organized its coordination, communication, and scheduling around that smaller panel, rather than simply advertising it.

What should I ask about medical records when switching physicians?

Ask who requests your records from every prior physician you have seen, and whether your new physician reviews that history before your first visit. A practice that treats this as the office's job, rather than yours, is one that has built its onboarding around continuity from the start.

Can one concierge physician see an entire family?

At many concierge practices, yes, provided the practice sees patients starting at a young enough age. At Naples Concierge Health, Dr. Grossman-Stuart sees patients starting at age six, which allows one physician to follow a household from childhood through the grandparents’ generation.

How do I compare membership costs between practices?

Membership pricing is best confirmed directly with each practice rather than compared from marketing materials alone, since what is included varies. The fastest way to get a clear answer from Naples Concierge Health is to book a gap assessment with the practice directly.

What if a practice will not answer these questions directly?

Treat that as an answer in itself. A practice confident in its panel size, coordination, and scope generally states it plainly, since those are the details that differentiate it from a traditional practice. Repeated redirection toward a sales conversation, without concrete numbers or mechanisms, is worth weighing against a practice that answers directly.

Should I ask these questions over the phone or in person?

Either works, though an in-person visit or consultation makes it easier to ask a follow-up question and gauge how consistent the answers remain under a bit of pressure. A phone call is a reasonable first filter before deciding which practices are worth an in-person visit at all.