You may have heard of "concierge medicine" — a model where patients pay a hefty annual membership fee, commonly $2,000 to $5,000 or more per year (with some premium practices charging far more), in exchange for faster appointments, longer visit times, and more direct access to their doctor. The appeal is obvious: nobody enjoys three-week waits and rushed seven-minute visits. But most people simply can't justify thousands of dollars a year for the privilege of being seen a little faster.
Here's the good news: you don't need a concierge membership to get fast, direct access to a real doctor. Telemedicine, done right, delivers many of the same benefits — speed, direct communication, and a doctor who actually has time to answer your question — without the steep price tag.
What concierge medicine actually promises
Traditional concierge practices typically offer:
- Same-day or next-day appointments
- Longer visit times instead of rushed seven-minute check-ins
- Direct phone or email access to your physician
- A smaller patient panel, so your doctor isn't juggling thousands of patients
These are genuinely valuable things. The problem is the price: most concierge models charge an annual membership on top of whatever your insurance already costs, putting it out of reach for most households.
How telemedicine delivers the same core benefits, more efficiently
A well-run telemedicine practice solves the same underlying problems — slow access, rushed visits, poor communication — through a fundamentally more efficient model, rather than a premium one:
- No office overhead passed on to you. There's no waiting room, no front desk staff, no exam room turnover time. That efficiency is reflected in the price, not layered on top of it.
- Direct messaging with a real physician, without a call center or automated phone tree standing in the way.
- Same-day or next-day responses, because a message or video visit doesn't require blocking out a physical exam room.
- A doctor who actually has time to think through your question, rather than rushing to stay on schedule with a packed waiting room.
In other words, the value proposition of concierge medicine — faster, more direct, more attentive care — doesn't actually require a $3,000 annual membership. It requires cutting out the parts of traditional healthcare delivery that create friction and cost without adding medical value.
What this looks like in practice
At Simply Medicine, a $49-a-month membership includes multiple visits and messaging with a real doctor — a fraction of what a traditional concierge practice charges, while still delivering the core things people actually want: fast answers, direct communication, and a physician who isn't rushing you out the door. Individual visits, if you'd rather pay as you go, run $29 to $79 depending on what you need.
This isn't about cutting corners on care. Every visit is still reviewed by a licensed Oklahoma physician or partnering provider who takes the time to actually answer your question. It's about removing the inefficiencies of the traditional system — the waiting rooms, the call centers, the overhead — that drive up cost without improving the medicine itself.
Sources
- Concierge MD Finder, "Concierge Medicine Cost 2026: Real Pricing Breakdown" — conciergemedfinder.com
- PartnerMD, "Concierge Medicine Costs: Pricing, What's Included, and How to Evaluate Value" — partnermd.com