Lawyer for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices in New York City

At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have extensive experience representing concierge physicians and concierge medical practices in New York and New Jersey with respect to their particular employment, business, and professional disciplinary needs and concerns.

We commonly aid concierge physicians and concierge medical practices in New York and New Jersey in:

• Drawing up, revising, and negotiating physician participation agreements with nationwide concierge medicine companies
• Drafting, revising, and negotiating employment contracts
• Preparing, revising and negotiating lease agreements for the concierge physicians’ and concierge medical practices’ medical offices;
• Counseling and giving advice during the business relationship with nationwide concierge medicine companies
• Employment compliance and consulting
• Litigating, arbitrating, and settling disputes
• Defending misconduct investigations of physicians and other medical professionals by the New York State Office of Professional Medical Conduct (the “OPMC”)
• Litigating disciplinary hearings for physicians and other medical professionals before the OPMC

What Is Concierge Medicine?

Concierge medicine, also called boutique medicine, retainer medicine, or direct primary care (“DPC”), is a membership-based care model under which patients pay, to the physician or medical practice, a monthly, quarterly, or annual retainer fee or membership fee for augmented care. Concierge medicine is surging in popularity in the U.S. In 2025, concierge medicine’s market size was valued at more than $8 billion; in 2030, concierge medicine’s market size is forecasted to exceed $13 billion.

Concierge medical practices limit the number of patients they serve. Concierge doctors typically see between six and eight patients daily, while doctors in traditional medical practices usually see between 11 and 15 patients daily.

Concierge medical practices focus on providing same-day appointments. In contrast, the typical waiting period for new patients to obtain an appointment with a doctor in major U.S. cities varies from 27 days to 70 days.

Further, concierge medical practices provide extended consultations, physical examinations, and direct access to the concierge physician. For example, patients receive, and may reach the concierge doctor on, the concierge doctor’s cell phone.

Typically in concierge medicine, the patient’s retainer fee covers all primary care services, including office visits, diagnostic tests, and consultations. Alternately, in a hybrid concierge model, physicians may continue to accept insurance or Medicare for covered services, while offering enhanced concierge services through a retainer.

A large percentage of concierge medical practices are affiliated with nationwide concierge medicine companies which provide legal, operational, and marketing support to these medical practices. In many ways, the business relationship between a nationwide concierge medicine company and an affiliated concierge medical practice resembles a franchisor – franchisee relationship.

The leading nationwide concierge medicine companies include, among others, MDVIP (the dominant market leader); Signature MD (the second-largest national network); Castle Connolly Private Health Partners (CCPHP); Concierge Choice Physicians (CCP); Partner MD; and Specialdocs Consultants, LLC.

Physician Participation Agreements for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices

The most important contract that a concierge physician, a concierge physician’s wholly-owned corporate entity, or a concierge medical practice will ever sign may be its physician participation agreement with a nationwide concierge medicine company.

Physician participation agreements may also be called management services agreements or affiliation agreements.

Physician participation agreements address, among other key issues, the structural and financial framework; the division of responsibilities between the physician and the national concierge medicine company; regulatory and compliance safeguards; restrictive covenants; the agreement’s term (duration) and the circumstances under which the physician or the national concierge medicine company may terminate the agreement early; and the parties’ post-termination obligations.

Physician participation agreement negotiations for concierge doctors and concierge medical practices can be protracted and complex. Nationwide concierge medicine companies present physicians with carefully drafted agreements that reflect years of negotiation experience and that serve the concierge medicine companies’ interests. Physicians need, and deserve, an equally experienced attorney at the negotiation table. Physicians and medical practices who are negotiating a physician participation agreement with a national concierge medicine company should retain an experienced New York City Employment Lawyer for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices.

The following are some terms and conditions that are of particular importance to a concierge physician (also referred to here as a “physician owner”) or a concierge medical practice in negotiating, with a nationwide concierge medicine company, a physician participation agreement. At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have substantial experience in bargaining for, drafting, revising, and enforcing these contractual provisions and many others on behalf of concierge physicians and concierge medical practices.

• The physician’s formation of a wholly-owned professional corporation or professional limited liability company, with which the national concierge medicine company contracts
• Duties and responsibilities
  • The physician owner treats the patients and employs the medical practice’s doctors
  • The national concierge medicine company handles non-clinical operations like marketing, acquiring patients, and collecting membership fees from the practice’s patients
• The management services fee paid by the physician owner to the national concierge medicine company
• Limits on the medical practice’s number of patients
  • Procedures for transitioning non-participating patients to other doctors
• Provision of facilities, equipment, and personnel
• Restrictive covenants
  • Non-competition, non-solicitation, no-employee-poaching, and confidentiality provisions
• Initial term (duration) of the physician participation agreement
• Early termination of the physician participation agreement
  • Grounds for early termination
    • By the physician owner
    • By the nationwide concierge medicine company
• Professional malpractice insurance coverage
• Licensing requirements
• Methodology and procedures
• The physician owner’s right to exercise his or her independent clinical judgment
• Medicare opt-out by the physician owner; and
• Patient privacy protections complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”)

If you are a concierge physician or a concierge medical practice in the New York City metropolitan area who seeks to enter into a physician participation agreement with a nationwide concierge medicine company, or who must respond to a proposed physician participation agreement tendered by a national concierge medicine company, call New York City Employment Attorney for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices David S. Rich at New York (347) 418-0672 | New Jersey (201) 571-1065.

Issues Arising During the Business Relationship

After you, the concierge physician or concierge medical practice, have entered into a physician participation agreement with a nationwide concierge medicine company, conflicts and disputes may develop during the business relationship. A skilled New York City Employment Lawyer for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices can help you tackle such circumstances by means of assessing, investigating, counseling, negotiating, and, when warranted, litigating or arbitrating. Frequently arising issues include:

• The national concierge medicine company encroaches into the concierge physician’s clinical responsibilities, or otherwise engages in the corporate practice of medicine
• Unlawful fee-splitting
• The nationwide concierge medicine company fails to adequately provide administrative, marketing, and operational services
• Failing to furnish adequate facilities, equipment, and staff
• Disputes over setting, holding, and refunding patient membership fees
• Conflicts over ownership of patient records and patient lists
• HIPAA and cybersecurity issues arising from the sharing of patient data
• The national concierge medicine company attempts to enforce restrictive covenants during the business relationship, such as by prohibiting the concierge physician from speaking with or contracting with any competing concierge medicine company
• Infighting and internal strife

Employment Compliance and Consulting

Cessation or Termination of the Business Relationship

Employment Litigation and Arbitration for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices

Frequently, clashes arise between concierge physicians or concierge medical practices and the nationwide concierge medicine companies with which they’re affiliated. In the first place, concierge physicians and concierge medical practices should make good-faith efforts to voluntarily resolve these disputes through dialogue and negotiation.

In some situations, the affiliated concierge physician and his or her national concierge medicine company may resolve their controversy through mediation. Mediation is a process by which the parties confer with a mutually selected, unbiased and neutral individual who facilitates their negotiation of their disputes.

When dialogue, negotiation, and mediation fail or are of no use, the disputants may sue one another in a court of law, or may participate in arbitration before an arbitral body. Many physician participation agreements between concierge physicians or concierge medical practices and the national concierge medicine companies with which they’re associated dictate that arbitration is the sole forum for resolving controversies arising from the business relationship.

At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we skillfully aid concierge doctors and concierge medical practices in resolving disputes with the nationwide concierge medicine companies with which they’re affiliated through compelling advocacy in negotiations and mediations.

Likewise, at the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we adeptly represent concierge physicians and concierge medical practices in employment litigation in federal and state courts and in arbitration proceedings before arbitral bodies, including, for example:

• Employee misclassification cases;
• Lawsuits for monies owed under physician participation agreements;
• Actions for unlawful termination or constructive termination of physician participation agreements;
• National concierge medicine companies’ lawsuits for alleged breaches, by the concierge physician, of non-competition, non-solicitation agreements, no-poaching, and confidentiality provisions
• Post-termination actions for misappropriation of trade secrets
• Cases seeking indemnification for liability to federal or state regulators, including liability for unlawful fee-splitting

If you’re a concierge physician or a concierge medical practice in the New York metro area, and you believe that your physician participation agreement has been wrongfully terminated, that you’re owed monies under your physician participation agreement, or that you’ve been misclassified as an independent contractor; or the national concierge medicine company with which you’re affiliated is suing you for purportedly violating non-competition, non-solicitation, no-employee-poaching, or confidentiality provisions, or for supposedly breaching other terms of your physician participation agreement, call New York City Employment Attorney for Concierge Physicians and Concierge Medical Practices David S. Rich at New York (347) 418-0672 | New Jersey (201) 571-1065.

New York OPMC Investigations and Disciplinary Hearings.