What's Included in a Concierge Medicine Membership (and Is It Worth It?)

There’s a trend occurring in healthcare in the United States — the rise in concierge and direct primary care. Between 2018 and 2023, direct primary care and concierge practices grew by 83%, and some estimate that these practices now make up about 10% to 20% of the nation’s primary care.

This trend is in response to a worrisome shift in our healthcare — one that’s governed more by insurance companies than by patients’ needs.

At Hartselle Health, Brooke Bevis, CRNP, and Brandi Hawkins, LPN, want to get back to a place where patients feel seen and heard. Perhaps more importantly, our goal is to provide care that helps patients move forward rather than keep them in cycles of illness and poor health. And all this can happen with our concierge primary care. Let’s take a look.

Bringing better care through concierge care

The concept of concierge in modern times comes from the hotel world — the concierge is the person at the lobby desk who acts as a sort of portal to the destination. They’re there to facilitate, help with access, and ensure that your experiences excel and that your needs are met.

Well, with our concierge primary care, we take that model and apply it to the world of medicine. In a world of increasing medical specialization and insurance companies that dictate care, concierge medicine is designed to be an oasis of medical care that gets back to what healthcare should be — healing and holistic.

Our primary care is designed to help patients find meaningful and sustainable solutions that improve their health and their quality of life. In other words, we want patients to heal and thrive, not become stuck in a cycle of simply managing their symptoms.

Concierge care and chronic disease

Where concierge primary care can really shine is for patients with chronic conditions, and that describes more than 76% of adults in the US. Some of the more common chronic conditions among Americans include:

• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular disease
• Thyroid disease
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Depression
• Anxiety

No matter the chronic condition, having a medical provider overseeing your care is critical. Through our concierge primary care, we ensure our patients' care is centralized and comprehensive. 

Just as important, we ensure care is coordinated in a way that moves the patient’s health forward. In other words, much can be done to keep chronic conditions in stasis, but our goal is to do better. Through our concierge primary care, we leave no stone unturned,  addressing chronic conditions from all angles, not only to manage the disease but also to improve your foundational health so that you’re better equipped to manage the disease.

In this way, we’re able not only to improve your underlying medical condition but also to improve your overall quality of life since we see the whole patient, not just the disease.

More benefits of concierge primary care

Outside of personalized care that focuses on holistic health and wellness, our concierge primary care has a few more goals:

• Longer patient visits that don’t leave you feeling rushed
• Same-day appointments whenever possible
• At-home care
• Telemedicine availability

Our feeling is that your primary care provider should be available and invested in your health, treating you like a person rather than a number. 

Through our concierge primary care, we also focus on comprehensive preventive care, including screenings and physicals, as well as access to lab testing to make sure your health stays on track. 

We can also handle care for minor injuries, such as ankle sprains or cuts and scrapes, placing much of your healthcare under the same roof.

So, if you’d like to break free from inadequate healthcare and enlist a team that prioritizes your best interests and health, please contact us at our office in Hartselle, Alabama, to learn more about our concierge medicine membership or to schedule a consultation.