Concierge, Wellness, and Block Fee Models of Primary Care: Ethical and Regulatory Concerns at the Public-Private Boundary

Abstract

In bioethics and health policy, we often discuss the appropriate boundaries of public funding; how the interface of public and private purchasers and providers should be organized and regulated receives less attention. In this paper, I discuss ethical and regulatory issues raised at this interface by three medical practice models (concierge care, executive wellness clinics, and block fee charges) in which physicians provide insured services (whether publicly insured, privately insured, or privately insured by public mandate) while requiring or requesting that patients pay for services or for the non-insured services of the physicians themselves or their associates. This choice for such practice models is different from the decision to design an insurance plan to include or exclude user fees, co-payments and deductibles. I analyze the issues raised with regards to familiar health care values of equity and efficiency, while highlighting additional concerns about fair terms of access, provider integrity, and fair competition. I then analyze the common Canadian regulatory response to block fee models, considering their extension to wellness clinics, with regards to fiduciary standards governing the physician-patient relationship and the role of informed consent. I close by highlighting briefly issues that are of common concern across different fundamental normative frameworks for health policy.

Keywords: Concierge medicine; Ethics of health policy; Insured and uninsured services; Medical practice design; Organization of care; Primary care ethics; Public–private divide; Wellness.