In Rural Massachusetts, Patients and Physicians Weigh Trade-Offs of Concierge Medicine - KFF Health News

Concierge medicine is a business model in which a doctor charges patients a monthly or annual membership fee.

In exchange for the membership fee, doctors limit their number of patients.

Many physicians who’ve made the change said it resolved some of the pressures they faced in primary care.

Critics say it helps only patients who have extra money to spend on health care.

Many doctors making the switch to concierge medicine say the membership model is the only way to have the kind of personal relationships with patients that attracted them to the profession in the first place.

“It’s a way to practice self-preservation in this field that is punishing patients and doctors alike,” one doctor says.