Concierge medicine is nothing new. But One Medical's $199 annual fee is about one-tenth what many established concierge practices charge. The office takes most major insurance carriers, but no Medicaid patients. For those who are uninsured, there's a flat-fee schedule for doctor visits. The company has offices in San Francisco, where it started, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. It will be interesting to see how the Boston office does compared with offices in cities where there are bigger populations of young professionals who are uninsured and looking for low-cost, high-value health care. Will people want to pay the membership fee, on top of other health care costs, for internet access to lab results, e-mail communication with their doctors, and convenient appointment times?
