What Is Concierge Medicine?
Concierge medicine is a membership-based model of primary care built around direct access: same-day or next-day appointments, visits long enough to cover more than one concern, and a physician who knows a patient’s full history because that physician is following far fewer patients than a traditional practice allows. It describes the structure of the relationship, not a specialty or a treatment. A concierge physician still practices general primary care; what changes is how much time and access each patient gets.
How Is This Different From a Traditional Primary Care Practice?
Most traditional primary care practices run on volume. A physician manages a panel in the thousands, appointments are typically built around a single concern, and reaching a physician directly between visits is unusual, not because any individual doctor does not care, but because the model does not leave room for it. Concierge medicine changes the math by limiting how many patients one physician follows, which is what creates room for same-day access, direct texting, and a visit built around a full conversation instead of one complaint at a time.
Is There Real Evidence Behind This Model?
This is more than a nicer way to see a doctor. There is real research behind why continuity of care changes outcomes. A 2018 study in the Annals of Family Medicine, led by researcher Andrew Bazemore and colleagues, followed more than 1.4 million Medicare patients and found that those with higher continuity, meaning they consistently saw the same primary care physician over time, had 14.1% lower healthcare costs and 16.1% lower odds of hospitalization than patients with more fragmented care. Concierge medicine is built around maximizing exactly that kind of continuity: the same physician, over time, with the bandwidth to track a patient’s full history rather than starting over at every visit.
READ: Concierge Medicine in Naples: The Long-Term Health Advantages Explained
Concierge Medicine vs. Direct Primary Care: What Is the Difference?
The two get confused often enough that it is worth answering directly. Both are membership-based models that operate outside traditional insurance billing for primary care, and both are built on the same basic idea: fewer patients per physician means more time per visit. Where they tend to differ is scope and panel size. Direct primary care practices often serve a larger panel and focus on a more limited set of in-office services, with a narrower scope of services to match. Concierge practices generally maintain a smaller panel and coordinate a wider range of services around each patient, from specialist coordination to home lab draws. Neither model is a substitute for insurance. Patients in either arrangement typically still carry insurance for hospital care, specialist visits, imaging, and prescriptions.
Who Practices at Naples Concierge Health
Naples Concierge Health is led by Dr. Jonathan Marsh and Dr. Danielle Grossman-Stuart, who each maintain a small patient panel so they can manage both a patient’s medical care and their broader health goals under one relationship, rather than splitting that across a primary care doctor and a separate wellness provider. The practice sees patients starting at age six, so a family can often stay with one physician across generations instead of maintaining separate pediatric and adult practices.
What Is Included
- Same-day or next-day appointments
- Direct communication with your physician, including texting
- Visits long enough to address more than one health concern
- Coordination with specialists so results and recommendations do not get lost between offices
- Records requested from every physician a new patient has seen, reviewed before the first visit
- Home blood draws, available with an optional membership tier, for patients who prefer not to come into the office for routine labs
What Does a Concierge Physician Do Differently, Day to Day?
The clinical training is the same. What changes is how that training gets applied when the schedule leaves room for the full complexity of each patient’s care. A concierge physician can spend a visit reviewing a full medication list rather than only the one prescription that prompted the appointment, follow up directly by text a few days later instead of waiting for the next scheduled visit, and coordinate with a specialist’s office directly rather than leaving that coordination to the patient. None of that requires a different skill set. It requires a schedule that has room for it.
Who This Is a Good Fit For
Concierge medicine tends to fit a specific set of situations well:
- Families who want one physician following everyone from childhood on
- Adult children managing an aging parent’s care, often from another state; Naples Concierge Health’s geriatric and senior care approach is built around this specifically
- Seasonal residents who split the year between two homes and need care that travels with them
- Patients managing a complex medical history across multiple specialists, who benefit from one physician overseeing their entire chart
- People who want a more proactive relationship with a physician, which often shows up in performance medicine and health optimization work
- Busy professionals who need efficient, thorough care, which is the specific focus of executive health services
Making the Decision to Switch
Changing how you receive primary care can feel like a bigger decision than it needs to be, especially if you have seen the same doctor for years and do not have any specific complaint about that relationship. You do not need one. Choosing concierge care is not a verdict on your current physician; it is a decision about how much time and access you want going forward, which is a different question entirely. Naples Concierge Health begins with a complimentary clinical gap assessment, so you can learn how the practice delivers care.
How Do You Switch From a Traditional Primary Care Doctor?
Switching typically starts with the new practice requesting records from every physician a patient has seen, so the new physician has a full history before the first visit rather than starting without it. There is no requirement to resolve anything with a current doctor first. Most of the coordination happens on the new practice’s side.
How Do You Get Started?
Joining starts with a complimentary clinical gap assessment. A member of the team walks through how the practice works and whether it is a good fit. What Happens at Your First Concierge Medicine Visit covers that process in detail, from the first phone call to the first appointment.
Is Concierge Medicine Right for You?
Curious whether concierge medicine is the right fit for your family? Book a gap assessment with our team to learn how the practice works and what joining looks like. You can browse everything Naples Concierge Health offers to see the fuller picture first.
You might also be interested in reading:
More from this series:
- 10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Concierge Doctor in Naples
- Why Panel Size Is Important in Concierge Medicine
Frequently Asked Questions
Is concierge medicine the same as direct primary care?
No. Both are membership-based alternatives to traditional insurance billing for primary care, but they typically differ in panel size and scope. Concierge practices generally maintain smaller panels and coordinate a broader range of services, while direct primary care practices often serve a larger panel with more limited in-office services. Neither replaces the need for insurance to cover hospital care, specialists, or prescriptions.
Do concierge medicine practices accept insurance?
The membership itself is separate from insurance. Patients typically still use their insurance for labs, imaging, specialist visits, hospital care, and prescriptions, the same way they would with any primary care physician. The membership covers access to the physician, not a replacement for insurance coverage.
What age can patients join Naples Concierge Health?
Naples Concierge Health sees patients starting at age six, so a family can stay with one physician across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood rather than switching between separate pediatric and adult practices as children grow up.
Is concierge medicine only for wealthy patients?
No. The model is defined by panel size and physician access, not income. A smaller patient panel allows more time per visit, which is the actual mechanism behind the model, not a marker of exclusivity on its own.
Do I need a specific problem with my current doctor to switch to concierge medicine?
No. Many patients switch simply because they want more time with their physician and faster access, not because of a specific complaint about their current doctor. Wanting a different kind of relationship with your primary care physician is enough of a reason on its own.
How long does it take to switch primary care physicians?
Most of the work happens on the new practice’s side. Once records are requested, Naples Concierge Health reviews them before the first visit.
Is concierge medicine worth it?
That depends on how much a patient values direct access and physician time, since those are what the model is built around. Someone managing a complex medical history, coordinating a parent’s care, or wanting a more proactive relationship with a physician tends to get the most out of it.