How to Pick a 'Concierge' Health Plan

If you're considering this model, or any other concierge form of care, it's worth thinking about how you typically use the services of your primary-care doctor, and whether the extra cash you spend will be worth it.

While concierge care may sound heavenly -- a doctor who actually returns phone calls and can devote a reasonable amount of time to your care -- it isn't a solution to our health care crisis.

"Rather than creating a better system of care for everyone, this model only ensures that people who can afford it get the best care," argues David Barton Smith, a research professor at the Center for Health Equality at Drexel University's School of Public Health.

Still, Smith admits that the benefits can be hard to resist, especially for people who are trying to keep their aging parents out of a nursing home.

"Even though I'm a skeptic, my 93-year-old mother is in one of these [concierge] practices," he says. "She's got an entire encyclopedia of various types of medical problems that need a lot of thought."