The data on patient retention, brand loyalty, and the growing membership medicine market points to one conclusion: the practices patients stay with aren’t selling a price point. They’re building a relationship.

By the Editor-in-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today

I want to start with a quote from one of my favorite books, Know What You’re FOR, by one of my all-time favorite authors, Jeff Henderson:

“Businesses have to understand the greatest source of their credibility isn’t the brand — it’s the customers of the brand.”

Read that again. The greatest source of credibility isn’t the brand — it’s the customers.

In membership medicine, that means you are the brand. Not the name of your practice. Not your annual fee. Not whether you call it concierge, direct primary care, or bespoke. You. The relationship. The experience. The moment a patient walks in and feels, for the first time in a long time, that someone in healthcare actually has time for them.

This is why I am genuinely enthusiastic about today’s contemporary concierge care and membership-driven personal care models. Not as an ideological position — but as someone who has sat on the patient side of that equation and understood, viscerally, what it means when a physician’s words carry real weight. Five words from a doctor can change a life. The quality of the relationship around those five words determines whether the patient heard them, trusted them, and acted on them.

What the Brand Loyalty Research Actually Says

Havas Group has conducted its Meaningful Brands study annually since 2008 — one of the largest global studies of brand value, spanning over 300,000 respondents across 33 countries and 1,500+ brands. The headline finding that launched the study and has endured for nearly two decades: most people wouldn’t care if 74% of brands disappeared. The most recent 2025 edition puts that figure at 78% — still rising.¹

The reason is consistent across every wave of the research: brands fail when they stop making a meaningful difference in people’s lives. When the product or service becomes interchangeable, when the communication becomes noise, when the relationship becomes purely transactional — loyalty evaporates.

Now apply that to healthcare. If 74% to 78% of consumer brands are considered disposable, what percentage of traditional healthcare experiences would patients replace without a second thought — given a viable alternative?

The answer is already being revealed in the market data. The U.S. concierge medicine market was valued at approximately $20.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $47 billion by 2034, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%.² Between 2018 and 2023, the number of U.S. concierge practices jumped 83.1%, while affiliated clinicians climbed 78.4%.³ These are not the growth metrics of a niche. They are the growth metrics of a category that is filling a real and urgent gap.

The Patient Retention Numbers Tell the Story

One of the most compelling data points in membership medicine is patient retention. In traditional primary care, retention rates run roughly 70% to 80%. In concierge and membership practices, the numbers look dramatically different.

MDVIP — with over 1,300 affiliated physicians — reported 90% patient retention as of December 2024.⁴ A Specialdocs-affiliated physician in Delray Beach, FL, who acquired a retiring concierge practice, reported patient retention topping 85% through a careful transition process.⁵ These figures are not anomalies. They reflect a consistent pattern: when patients find a membership practice that delivers on its promise of access, time, and relationship, they stay.

Consider what that retention rate represents from the patient’s perspective. It is not inertia. It is not lack of alternatives. It is a deliberate annual decision to renew — to say, with their wallet and their trust, that this relationship is worth continuing. In an era when patients wouldn’t blink at switching insurance plans, pharmacies, or hospital systems, staying in a membership practice year after year is a meaningful signal.

A patient recently captured this on Instagram, in a comment about a concierge practice she loved: “OH, I LOVE IT THERE — I ALMOST FELL ASLEEP IT’S SO RELAXING!”

That is not a clinical outcome measure. But it is a retention measure. It is word-of-mouth. It is the organic referral engine that every practice — at every price point — is ultimately trying to build. And it starts with an experience so different from what patients expect that it stops them mid-scroll to write about it.

What Apple Understood That Most Healthcare Brands Don’t

A 2007 Ars Technica piece examining Apple’s marketing to younger consumers identified something that applies directly to membership medicine. Apple’s products succeeded not just because they worked — but because they were aligned with the actual needs and values of their users. Apple didn’t lead with features. It led with identity: “this is for people who are creative, independent, and expect more.”⁶

The parallel is direct. Membership medicine practices that grow — that retain patients, that generate referrals, that build lasting community presence — are the ones that lead with identity rather than features. Not “we offer 24/7 access and same-day appointments” (though those matter). But: “we believe you deserve a doctor who actually knows you.”

The features are the proof. The identity is the reason a patient chooses you, tells a friend, and renews year after year.

Apple also understood something about word-of-mouth: once genuine enthusiasm exists, reducing advertising and letting the customers carry the message is more effective than any campaign. The same dynamic appears in high-retention concierge practices. The physician doesn’t need to dominate social media. The physician needs to do the work so well that patients become the marketing.

The Market Has Room for Every Model — If the Experience Delivers

Contemporary concierge care and membership-driven personal care models now span a remarkable range of price points and service configurations. Practices typically manage 300 to 600 patients and charge annual fees broadly ranging from $600 to $5,000+, offering benefits including 24/7 physician access, same-day appointments, and direct communication outside office hours.⁷ At the lower end, DPC practices charge $50 to $100 per month and serve patients who simply want more time and transparency from their doctor. At the higher end, executive health programs offer comprehensive diagnostics, genomic profiling, and a full care team for annual fees that reflect the depth of service.

The common thread is not price. It is philosophy. And the Havas research makes clear that the brands — and the healthcare practices — that earn lasting loyalty are the ones that make a meaningful difference in people’s lives at a personal level. Meaningful brands outperform the stock market by more than 200% and generate significantly higher returns across all key performance indicators.¹ The same logic applies to practices: the physician-patient relationship that is genuinely meaningful is the one that compounds over time.

I am not evangelical about any single model. I am enthusiastic about the outcome: a patient who feels, for the first time, that their healthcare experience reflects the level of care and attention they’ve been looking for. At any price point. In any community.

The Prescription: Be the Brand Your Patients Can’t Stop Talking About

The healthcare brands patients would not care about losing are the ones that treated them like a billing code. The ones they stay with — and refer — are the ones that treated them like a person.

That is not a marketing insight. It is a clinical one. The physician-patient relationship is the most powerful determinant of adherence, outcomes, satisfaction, and trust in the entire healthcare system. Membership medicine, in its best form, is simply the business model that creates the conditions for that relationship to actually exist.

You are the brand. Your patients are your credibility. And in a healthcare landscape where 71.5% of Americans trusted the system in 2020 and only 40.1% did by 2024, the practices that rebuild that trust — one relationship at a time, at whatever price point serves their community — are the ones that will define what American medicine looks like next.⁸

Editor’s Note: Membership medicine models are not medical specialties and are not a replacement for, nor an insurance product. Physicians considering these models should consult appropriate legal and compliance counsel.

Sources & Citations

1. Havas Group. Meaningful Brands™ Study, conducted annually since 2008. 2017 figure (74%) confirmed by The Drum and CNBC. 2021 figure (75%) from Havas press release. 2025 figure (78%) from LBBOnline, July 2025. https://www.havas.com / https://lbbonline.com/news/Dynamic-Adaptability-Havas-Brand-Study
2. JMCO / Market Research. “Concierge Medicine Market Projected to Reach $47 Billion by 2034.” Citing compound annual growth rate of 8.6%. https://www.jmco.com/articles/healthcare/concierge-medicine-market-projected-to-reach-47-billion-by-2034/
3. Mordor Intelligence. “Concierge Medicine Market Size & Forecast, 2026–2031.” Citing 83.1% growth in practices and 78.4% growth in affiliated clinicians, 2018–2023. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/concierge-medicine-market
4. Mordor Intelligence (2026), op. cit. Citing MDVIP December 2024 data: 1,300+ affiliated physicians, 90% patient retention, 96% physician satisfaction.
5. Medical Economics. “Concierge Medicine Opens Its Doors Wider Than Ever to Physicians Seeking Positive Change.” Citing Specialdocs-affiliated physician, Delray Beach, FL. https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/concierge-medicine-opens-its-doors-wider-than-ever-to-physicians-seeking-positive-change
6. Berka, J. (2007). “The Secrets to Apple’s Success in Marketing to Teenagers.” Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2007/08/the-secrets-to-apples-success-in-marketing-to-teenagers/
7. Grand View Research. “U.S. Concierge Medicine Market Size, Industry Report, 2030.” Citing typical panel sizes of 300–600 patients and annual fee ranges. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-concierge-medicine-market-report
8. Perlis, R.H. et al. (2024). “Trust in Physicians and Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a 50-State Survey of US Adults.” JAMA Network Open. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24984.

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