What's driving concentration of DPC, concierge practices?

Clusters of concierge and direct primary care practices in states like Texas, California and Florida may be less about a single regulatory “sweet spot” and more about where demand is colliding with access pressure

In an interview with Physicians Practice, Jane Zhu, M.D., of Oregon Health & Science University, details the results of a study she led that pinpointed where the boom in these practice models is located.

Physicians Practice: You found big clusters of these practices in Texas, California and Florida. In your opinion, is it being driven by the wealth of patients, or more about regulatory environments?

JZ: I think it’s a matter of demand and market opportunities and pressures. The rise of concierge and direct primary care models is reflecting real needs — simple demand in the market — that people are willing to pay for more personalized care and better access.

Part of the reason we might see concentration in certain states is because there is greater population-level need in some areas. States like Texas and Florida have a higher share of older adults who are needing primary care and potentially lack access — and may have the means to pay for additional personalized care and access.

But there’s still so much that we don’t understand about these models. This is really quite new, particularly direct primary care. So, there could be regulatory and clinician-level factors, and there could be patient-level factors that push and pull. We don’t quite know right now.

What we see in other studies or research around where primary care practices, corporate practices, concentrate is similar: Texas, Florida, places where there’s demand for care.