The largest tech companies in America have been quietly operating their own primary care clinics for more than a decade. Google opened its first on-site wellness center in 2010 at Mountain View and has since expanded to New York, Cambridge, and the Seattle area, where tens of thousands of employees use the clinics[1]. Apple launched AC Wellness in 2018, a dedicated primary care group for Apple employees in Santa Clara County[2]. Meta runs a 19,500-square-foot medical clinic at its Menlo Park headquarters that handles roughly 175 patients per day[3].
What they figured out is now available to any company through the concierge and Direct Primary Care (DPC) network. You do not need to build a clinic. You can give a senior engineer, a sales leader, or your entire workforce a primary care doctor with a small panel, same-day access, and 30 to 60 minute visits. DPC starts as low as $600 per year per person. Entry Level concierge starts around $2,500 per year.
At NextMD we track over 4,600 concierge and DPC physicians nationwide. Here is how the employer side of that market works in 2026.
The Retention Math
Replacing a senior employee costs 100 to 200 percent of their annual salary once you count recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity[4]. For a $250,000 hire, that is a $250,000 to $500,000 event. And the reasons the best people leave are rarely about pay. Burnout, a chronic condition not caught early, a health scare the system could not resolve. A membership at $600 to $15,000 per year per person is under 2 percent of total comp for most senior hires. If it prevents one regrettable exit per year, it pays for itself many times over.
The Four Pricing Tiers
Tier | Annual Cost Per Employee | Example Practices | What You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
Direct Primary Care (DPC) | $600 to $2,400 | Unlimited primary care visits, texts, and calls for a flat monthly fee. No insurance billing for primary care. Best for whole-company coverage | |
Entry Level Concierge | $2,500 to $5,000 | Same-day access, 30 to 45 minute visits, direct phone or text to the doctor | |
Premium Concierge | $5,000 to $12,000 | 24/7 access, extended visits, better preventive diagnostics, smaller panel | |
Ultra Premium / Executive Health | $15,000 and up, commonly over $40,000 | Ultra-small panels, comprehensive executive physicals, advanced diagnostics, national coverage for traveling executives |
For a full breakdown by tier, see our guide on how much concierge medicine costs.
DPC vs Concierge: Which Fits Your Company?
DPC and concierge are both membership-based, but they differ in panel size and insurance billing. A DPC doctor caps their panel at up to 800 patients and does not bill insurance for primary care. A concierge doctor caps at under 300 and typically still bills insurance for covered services, charging the membership fee on top for time and access. DPC delivers direct access at a lower price by running a larger panel without the insurance overhead.
For employer coverage:
DPC fits best for whole-workforce coverage at $50 to $200 per month per employee, often paired with a high-deductible health plan.
Entry Level and Premium concierge fits senior leadership and top performers who want a higher-touch experience.
Ultra Premium fits C-suite and traveling executives needing national coverage and ultra-small panels.
Many companies combine them: DPC for the whole staff, Premium or Ultra Premium concierge for leadership.
The Hard Data on ROI
The research is no longer theoretical.
45 percent lower total spending. A 2020 study in JAMA Network Open analyzed 23,518 employees at an aerospace firm that implemented employer-sponsored primary care at $87 per member per month[5]. Results: 45 percent lower total medical spending, 33 percent fewer emergency department visits, 43 percent fewer surgeries, 54 percent lower specialist spending[5]. A 1.9x return on the program cost alone, before retention and productivity are counted.
52 percent lower cost per member. A 2025 Hint Health analysis of a real estate firm offering DPC as a benefit found DPC members cost $282 per member per month versus $592 for non-DPC members on the same plan[6]. Same company, same demographics.
40 percent fewer ER visits. A 2020 Society of Actuaries / Milliman study found DPC patients visit the ER 40.51 percent less often than patients on traditional insurance, even after adjusting for health status[7]. See our full writeup on the ER 40 percent finding for the mechanism.
Who This Works For
This is not just for big companies. The math often works the math works for both big and small companies alike.
Company Size | Realistic Coverage | Annual Cost | Risk Covered |
|---|---|---|---|
10-person startup | CEO plus 3 key hires at Entry/Premium concierge | $20,000 to $40,000 | $200,000 to $600,000 in replacement cost |
100-person services firm | Whole staff on DPC + Premium concierge for leadership | $100,000 to $500,000 | Less than one senior hire's fully-loaded cost |
1,000-person company | Whole workforce on DPC (often paired with HDHP) | $600,000 to $5,000,000 depending on plan | 45 percent claim reduction scales linearly[5] |
Providing high quality concierge health programs to your employees can be an incredibly powerful investment. High quality concierge medicine is a way to attract new employees, retain current employees and ensure positive health outcomes for the people that matter the most to your organization.
→ Browse concierge and DPC doctors on NextMD
Cheers
Josh Bobrowsky
Founder & CEO
Sources
Kaplan, M. (2023, October 2). Google plans to expand on-campus health clinics amid RTO push. HR Brew. hr-brew.com. See also: Modern Healthcare. Google to open more on-site wellness centers. modernhealthcare.com
Farr, C. (2018, February 27). Apple is launching medical clinics to deliver the 'world's best health care experience' to its employees. CNBC. cnbc.com
Kadvany, E. (2016, June 9). Menlo Park: Facebook to move employee health clinic to new location. The Almanac. almanacnews.com
Society for Human Resource Management. The Real Costs of Recruitment and Turnover. SHRM benchmarks on employee replacement cost ranging 50 to 200 percent of annual salary; executive-level replacement typically 100 to 200 percent. shrm.org
Basu, S., et al. (2020). Analysis of employer-sponsored primary care at a Southern California aerospace firm (23,518 employees, One Medical model), published in JAMA Network Open. $87 per member per month infrastructure cost; 45 percent lower total spending; 33 percent fewer ER visits; 43 percent fewer surgeries; 54 percent lower specialist spending. jamanetwork.com
Hint Health. (2025). Employer Trends in Direct Primary Care. Real estate firm case study: DPC members $282 PMPM vs non-DPC $592 PMPM (52 percent difference). Platform data from 2,400+ clinicians and 1.2M members. hint.com
Busch, F., Grzeskowiak, D., & Huth, E. (2020). Direct Primary Care: Evaluating a New Model of Delivery and Financing. Society of Actuaries / Milliman. Risk-adjusted analysis showing 40.51 percent fewer ER visits for DPC patients vs traditional insurance patients. soa.org