Most discussions of concierge medicine focus on what the model offers. Fewer address how members actually get the most out of it, which turns out to matter quite a bit. Members who understand the model and use it fully get meaningfully more clinical value than members who treat it like a more expensive version of conventional care.
The single most important behavior change for new concierge members is raising concerns earlier. In conventional care, the threshold for calling the office is high because the access is limited. Calling means getting routed to a nurse, leaving a message, and waiting for a callback from someone who may not know your history. Most people reserve that friction for symptoms that feel clearly significant. In a concierge relationship, the threshold is different. You call Dr. Stein’s direct number when something is on your mind. That might be a symptom you have been watching for two weeks, a medication side effect you are unsure is worth mentioning, or a family member’s recent diagnosis that has made you wonder about your own risk. All of those are worth raising. Direct access exists precisely to make that kind of early contact easy.
The annual physical is the clinical anchor of the membership, but it is not the only time to engage substantively with your care. Members who bring a prepared agenda to their annual physical — the list of symptoms they have noticed, the questions about medications or supplements they have been sitting on, the family history detail that came up at a recent reunion — use the extended appointment time more productively than members who assume the physician will identify everything without input. The extended appointment is collaborative. What you bring to it shapes what happens in it.
Lab results deserve a conversation. A patient portal notification is not the same thing. When Dr. Stein orders labs and reviews the results, the clinical response is specific. If a finding warrants discussion, the conversation happens directly — by phone, by text, by scheduled follow-up. Members who receive a result they do not fully understand should ask. A number on a lab report without clinical context is not useful information. Understanding what the result means for your specific situation, what the plan is, and what you should watch for — that is the value. Advanced diagnostics are only as useful as the conversation that follows them.
Specialist referrals in a concierge relationship work differently from conventional referrals and should be used accordingly. When Dr. Stein refers a member to a cardiologist or endocrinologist, he is sending them to a physician he knows personally with a specific clinical question. The member can expect that the specialist has context from Dr. Stein before the appointment. The member can also expect that Dr. Stein will review the specialist’s findings and discuss them directly. What members should do is close the loop — share specialist visit summaries, bring back recommendations, and let Dr. Stein know when something changes in the specialist relationship. The coordination function depends on information flowing in both directions.
Telehealth in a concierge relationship is a genuine clinical tool, not a fallback for when in-person access is unavailable. For members who travel, split time between locations, or simply have a health question that does not require an exam, a phone or video conversation with Dr. Stein starts where your care left off. That means prescription refills happen without a form submission and a wait. Medication questions get answered by the physician who prescribed them. Lab results get discussed on your timeline rather than a portal’s response window. Telehealth access through BRCM is direct physician contact. That distinction matters in practice.
Travel is an underutilized context for the membership. Members with significant international travel on the calendar should discuss it with Dr. Stein in advance — not as a separate travel medicine consultation but as part of the ongoing care relationship. Vaccination history, destination-specific risks, medication management across time zones, and the documentation needed for travel with prescription medications are all clinical conversations that belong in the concierge relationship. A member who leaves on a three-week international trip without talking to Dr. Stein beforehand has missed a clinical touchpoint that the membership is built to provide.
Medications deserve an annual review as a specific agenda item, separate from the clinical examination. What you are taking, why you are still taking it, whether the dose remains appropriate, and how it interacts with anything else in your regimen — this review is clinical work that rarely happens in conventional care. In a concierge relationship, it can and should happen systematically. Members managing multiple medications benefit most from this conversation, but it is worth having regardless of regimen complexity.
The relationship component of the membership has clinical value that is easy to underestimate. Dr. Stein knowing your history — knowing what your blood pressure was running two years ago, remembering that you tried a medication in 2024 and did not tolerate it, recognizing that what you are describing sounds different from how you presented at your last annual physical — is not a comfort feature. It is clinical information that produces better decisions. The physician who has known you for years makes better decisions about your health than the physician who has known you for fifteen minutes. The membership is the structure that builds and preserves that knowledge. Using the membership fully means treating the relationship as a clinical asset, which is what it is.
For prospective members wondering what full engagement with a concierge practice looks like, the most direct answer comes from a conversation. Preventive care at this level is not a passive experience. Published research from the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative consistently shows that patients who actively engage with their primary care relationship — who communicate early, ask questions, and maintain continuity — have better outcomes than patients who engage episodically regardless of the quality of care available to them. The membership is the opportunity. Using it is the work.
Call (561) 483-5500 or reach the practice through the contact page to discuss membership or to schedule your first visit.