A Doctor Who Answers the Phone
Concierge medicine is a membership arrangement: you pay a retainer directly to a physician, and in exchange you get direct access to that physician, longer appointments, and care that comes to you rather than the other way around.
In Los Angeles, House Call Doctor LA is that practice for a deliberately small number of individuals and families. Dr. Michael Farzam sees members at home, at the office, or in a hotel room, across the Westside, the Valley, Downtown, and the South Bay.
This page covers what membership includes, how the fee is structured, who concierge medicine suits, and who it does not. If you are trying to decide whether it is worth paying for a doctor on retainer, the honest version of that answer is further down.
Call (310) 849-7991 to ask about availability.
Table of Contents
- What Concierge Medicine Is, and What It Is Not
- What Membership Includes
- What an Actual Visit Looks Like
- Who Dr. Michael Farzam Is
- How the Cost Is Structured
- Is a Concierge Doctor Worth It?
- Concierge Medicine vs Traditional Primary Care vs Urgent Care
- Where We See Members
- What Concierge Medicine Does Not Cover
- How to Become a Member
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Concierge Medicine Is, and What It Is Not
In a conventional practice, a physician carries a panel of two to three thousand patients. The economics of that panel are what produce the twenty-minute appointment, the three-week wait, and the call that gets returned by someone you have never met.
Concierge medicine, also called boutique medicine or membership medicine, changes the arithmetic. The physician accepts a much smaller panel and charges a retainer for access. Fewer patients means longer appointments, same-day availability, and a phone number that reaches the doctor rather than a queue.
What it is not:
- It is not insurance, and it does not replace insurance. You still need coverage for hospitalization, specialists, surgery, imaging, and prescriptions.
- It is not emergency care. A membership does not substitute for 911.
- It is not a guarantee of unlimited everything. Any practice that implies otherwise is being loose with the word. Scope is defined, and some services are billed separately.
What Membership Includes
The core of the membership is direct access to Dr. Farzam and house call visits at your location. Typical inclusions:
- Annual executive physical
- House call visits at home, office, or hotel
- Care for acute illness and injury
- Ongoing monitoring of chronic conditions
- Routine follow-up visits
- Nursing care coordination
- Direct 24/7 contact with the physician by cell, text, and email
- Same-day appointments, subject to availability
- No third-party influence on clinical decisions
Some items sit outside the retainer and are billed separately: laboratory work, imaging, specialist referrals, medications, and certain procedures. Which items fall inside your membership and which do not is confirmed in writing before you enroll, not after.
Certain diagnostics can be done on site during a visit, including EKG, spirometry, and point-of-care testing, which means fewer trips out for things that would otherwise require an appointment somewhere else. See also lab draws and testing at home and mobile imaging.
What an Actual Visit Looks Like
A typical primary care appointment in Los Angeles runs about twenty minutes, and a meaningful part of that is spent on the computer rather than on you. A House Call Doctor LA visit averages around forty-five minutes, in your own home, with no waiting room and no one else’s schedule pressing on it.
Dr. Farzam arrives with commonly needed medications on hand, so treatment frequently begins during the visit instead of after a pharmacy trip. For a member with a sinus infection, a flare of a chronic condition, or a child running a fever, that difference is the entire point of the arrangement.
Who Dr. Michael Farzam Is
Dr. Michael Farzam completed his residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the American College of Physicians and of the professional academy for home-based primary care.
He has practiced house call medicine in Los Angeles for over a decade, and House Call Doctor LA is a single-physician practice by design. When you call, you reach him, not a rotating group.
More about the practice: Dr. Michael Farzam and what patients say.
How the Cost Is Structured
Concierge practices price in one of three ways, and it is worth knowing which you are being quoted.
- Annual or monthly retainer. A flat membership fee covering access and a defined set of services. This is the model House Call Doctor LA uses.
- Per-visit fee. No membership; you pay for each house call. Appropriate if you want occasional care rather than an ongoing relationship.
- Hybrid. A smaller retainer plus a reduced per-visit charge.
What moves the number, in any practice:
- Individual membership versus a family, and how many people are covered
- How much of the service is included versus billed separately
- Complexity of care, particularly with multiple chronic conditions
- How large a service area the physician has to cover
- Level of after-hours availability included
- Whether diagnostics and nursing coordination are bundled
- Panel size, since a smaller panel costs more per member to sustain
On insurance: the retainer itself is not billed to insurance. Some services delivered during membership may be billable to your plan, and some members submit for partial reimbursement. Your coverage still applies to hospitalization, specialists, imaging and prescriptions, which is why concierge care sits alongside insurance rather than replacing it. HSA and FSA eligibility varies, and that is a question for your plan administrator rather than for us.
We give you the fee in writing during the initial consultation, along with exactly what falls inside it. We do not publish a figure here because membership terms differ by household size and by what a given family needs included, and a number without those terms attached would mislead more than it would help. If you want the number, call (310) 849-7991 and you will have it in that conversation.
Is a Concierge Doctor Worth It?
For some people it plainly is, and for others it is money badly spent. Here is the honest version of both.
When It Is Worth It
- You manage one or more chronic conditions and the cost of a delayed answer is high
- Your time is expensive enough that half a day lost to a waiting room is a real cost
- You travel constantly and need a physician who knows your history and is reachable from anywhere
- You are caring for an ageing parent and coordinating their care is falling to you
- Privacy matters to you and a public waiting room does not work
- You have small children and getting them into a clinic at 8pm is not realistic
When It Is Not
- You are generally healthy and see a doctor once a year. You will pay a retainer for access you rarely use. An annual physical and an urgent care visit when something comes up is cheaper and perfectly adequate.
- You are looking for a way to spend less on healthcare. This is an additional cost on top of insurance, not a replacement for it.
- Your care is mostly specialist-driven. If oncology or cardiology leads your treatment, a concierge internist adds coordination but does not replace the specialist.
- You want unlimited everything for a flat fee. No practice delivers that, and any that implies it is setting up a disappointment.
The common criticism of concierge medicine is that it lets people buy their way to the front of the line while shrinking the number of patients a good physician sees. That is a fair objection and worth weighing. What we can say is what the arrangement actually buys: time and access, from a physician who is not carrying three thousand other people.
Concierge Medicine vs Traditional Primary Care vs Urgent Care
| Concierge membership | Traditional primary care | Urgent care | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who you see | The same physician every time | Your assigned doctor, or whoever is free | Whoever is on shift |
| Typical visit length | About 45 minutes | About 20 minutes | Brief, symptom focused |
| Where | Your home, office, or hotel | Their office | Their clinic, plus the wait |
| After hours | Direct contact with your physician | Answering service | Limited hours |
| Continuity | High, one physician holds your history | Moderate | None |
| How you pay | Retainer, plus insurance for outside care | Insurance and copay | Copay or self pay per visit |
If you want a single house call without a membership, that is a different service: see urgent care at home or 24 hour doctor visits.
Where We See Members
Across greater Los Angeles, including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Bel Air, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Century City, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Los Feliz, Downtown LA, Pasadena, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Marina del Rey, and Manhattan Beach.
Visits also cover hotels and offices, which matters for members who travel into the city for work or who are hosting family from out of town.
What Concierge Medicine Does Not Cover
Being direct about the boundaries is part of the service.
- Emergencies. Chest pain, difficulty breathing, stroke symptoms, heavy bleeding, seizures, loss of consciousness or a serious head injury mean calling 911, not calling us.
- Surgery and hospital care. Delivered by hospitals and surgical specialists. Membership includes coordination, not the procedure.
- Specialist treatment. We refer, coordinate, and stay involved. We do not replace your oncologist or cardiologist.
- Insurance coverage. The retainer is not a health plan.
How to Become a Member
- Call or write. Tell us who needs care and what your situation looks like.
- Consultation and fit. We talk through your health history, what you need included, and whether this arrangement genuinely suits you. You get the fee and the terms in writing at this stage. If concierge care is not right for you, we will say so.
- Care plan and first visit. If it fits, we agree a plan and schedule your first house call.
Membership is limited to a small number of individuals and families, which is what makes the access possible. Availability is not always open.
Call (310) 849-7991 or send a message.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a concierge doctor cost in Los Angeles?
Fees vary widely by practice, by whether the membership covers an individual or a family, and by how much is included in the retainer versus billed separately. We quote our fee and the full terms during the initial consultation. Call (310) 849-7991 and you will have the number in that conversation.
Is concierge medicine covered by insurance?
The retainer itself is not billed to insurance. Some services delivered during your membership may be billable to your plan, and some members submit for partial reimbursement. You keep your insurance for hospitalization, specialists, imaging and prescriptions.
Is a concierge doctor worth it?
It depends on how much you use a physician. If you manage chronic conditions, travel often, care for ageing parents, or place a high value on your time, the arrangement usually pays for itself in access and avoided delay. If you are healthy and see a doctor once a year, it probably does not.
What are the downsides of concierge medicine?
It is an added cost on top of insurance, it does not cover hospital or specialist care, and it means fewer patients per physician, which is a fair criticism of the model at a system level. It also only makes financial sense if you actually use the access you are paying for.
What is the difference between concierge medicine and boutique medicine?
Nothing meaningful. Concierge medicine, boutique medicine and membership medicine all describe the same arrangement: a retainer paid to a physician in exchange for direct access and a smaller patient panel.
Do you still need health insurance with a concierge doctor?
Yes. Concierge membership covers your relationship with your physician. It does not cover hospitalization, surgery, specialists, imaging or prescriptions, all of which still run through your insurance.
Can a concierge doctor handle emergencies?
No. For chest pain, difficulty breathing, stroke symptoms, heavy bleeding, seizures, loss of consciousness or head injury, call 911. Concierge membership gives you fast access to your physician for everything short of an emergency.
How quickly can I be seen?
Same-day appointments are typical, subject to availability, and you reach Dr. Farzam directly rather than through an answering service.
Do you see children and older adults?
Yes. Families are a large share of the practice, and coordinating care for an ageing parent is one of the most common reasons people enroll.
Can you see me at my hotel?
Yes. Visits cover homes, offices and hotels across greater Los Angeles.
How many patients do you accept?
Membership is deliberately limited. A small panel is what makes long visits and direct access possible, so availability opens and closes.
What if I only want one house call, not a membership?
That is available as a separate service. See urgent care at home or 24 hour doctor visits, both of which are paid per visit with no membership required.
