Health systems today are caught in a familiar squeeze: shrinking primary care margins, a physician workforce stretched thin by burnout and patients increasingly seeking out more personalized care options. For a growing number of health system leaders, concierge medicine has emerged as a practical — and low-risk — way to enhance revenue, improve physician satisfaction and strengthen recruitment, all without disrupting existing operations.
During a featured session sponsored by Concierge Choice Physicians at Becker’s 16th Annual Meeting, executives shared how they’ve launched, scaled and institutionalized concierge programs within their organizations. The session was moderated by Gianna Angelillo, director of marketing and communications at Concierge Choice Physicians. The panelists included:
- Timothy P. Seibert, chief administrative officer and executive director, primary care initiative, Weill Cornell Medicine (New York City)
- Chad Wadell, MD, site director, internal medicine, and member, board of directors, Mission Heritage Medical Group and Mission Hospital Foundation (Mission Viejo, Calif.)
- Keith Elgart, CEO, Concierge Choice Physicians
Below are four takeaways from their conversation.
Note: Quotes have been edited lightly for length and clarity.
1. Health systems are turning to concierge medicine to solve real operational problems
Both Mr. Seibert and Dr. Wadell described their organizations coming to concierge medicine not as a luxury add-on, but as a strategic response to pressure points already straining their systems. Primary care, as Dr. Wadell framed it plainly, is “a loss leader” — an investment in the foundation that generates downstream referrals and procedures, but rarely covers its own costs.
The programs at Weill Cornell Medicine and Mission Heritage Medical Group both launched as pilots with five physicians, using a hybrid model in which participating physicians maintain their full patient panel while capping concierge membership at 100 to 150 patients.
Critically, that hybrid structure addressed a concern common in academic and mission-driven institutions: the perception of tiered medicine. Dr. Wadell described drawing on his organization’s founding history — rooted in the spirit of giving back — to make the case that a portion of concierge fees would flow to community benefit. “I was able to get buy-in there from the physician side,” he said.
2. The revenue impact is tangible and goes beyond a simple uptick
Concierge membership fees come in addition to, not in place of, insurance reimbursement — an important distinction, particularly in health system settings where concierge physicians continue to accept insurance. The model can create a meaningful new revenue stream while requiring minimal added overhead. Dr. Wadell noted that his group runs one dedicated phone line and employs one concierge medical assistant for about eight physicians.
For Mr. Seibert, the financial trajectory has been striking. Since launching concierge medicine at Weill Cornell, the subsidy the academic medical center had historically received from New York-Presbyterian Hospital to support primary care operations has decreased every year.
“There’s potential probably within the next year or two for us to not require a subsidy, which is huge,” he said, noting that freeing up capital could fund new programs, including a Medicare initiative the department currently cannot afford.
Mr. Elgart added that the pattern holds across Concierge Choice’s client base: every health system the company has worked with has not only seen enhanced revenue but has expanded its concierge program after its initial cohort.
3. Concierge medicine is a meaningful tool for physician retention and recruitment
Physician burnout and the primary care pipeline shortage were recurring themes in the session. Dr. Wadell described the concierge model as giving physicians “an opportunity to get back to the Marcus Welby way of giving medicine”: fewer checkboxes and more time with patients.
“I don’t have any burnt-out concierge doctors,” Dr. Wadell said.
The recruitment dimension is equally concrete. Mr. Seibert described recruiting three senior physicians away from a competitor organization — physicians who had approached that institution about launching a concierge program and were turned away.
The prospect of a concierge option, available once a physician has established a community presence and patient panel, has also become a retention lever for physicians weighing whether to stay or leave. “I had a doctor that was going to leave, but I told him he could [join the concierge program] because he had good quality measures, good patient stats, good productivity — and he stayed,” Dr. Wadell said.
4. The barrier to entry is lower than most health system leaders expect
Another consistent theme across the session was how approachable the concierge launch process is, even in complex academic or mission-based organizations. Both Mr. Seibert and Dr. Wadell noted that the internal approval process — navigating physician groups, hospital boards and community perception concerns — took time, sometimes years. But the operational investment at launch is minimal: no upfront costs, no changes to how physician practices are structured and the flexibility to scale up or wind down with a single physician if circumstances change.
On-site training, marketing, patient outreach, fee collection and six-month member check-ins are all managed by Concierge Choice, keeping the lift on the health system side light. “You can walk it kind of for free, and just build it as it goes,” Mr. Elgart said.
Where health system leaders go from here
The through-line of the session was that concierge medicine, implemented correctly within a hybrid model, does not require health systems to choose between serving their full communities and addressing the financial and workforce pressures straining primary care.
Rather, it runs in parallel with traditional care — adding a revenue stream that compounds over time, a flexibility that physicians value and patients appreciate, and a satisfaction lift that, as Dr. Wadell observed, tends to extend across the entire panel.
For health systems still on the sideline, the panelists’ consistent message was simple: start small, with the right physicians, and the program builds itself from there.
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