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What We Learned at CMF 2026
Three days in Cumming, Georgia, produced a lot of advice from the stage. This report sorts it: the ideas about culture, pricing, MSOs and compounding that are worth taking home, the outside evidence that supports or tempers them, and the claims you should check with counsel before you act on any of them.
New in October 2026. Written from CMT’s notes on the Concierge Medicine Forum, October 15 to 17, 2026.
Start here: the questions this brief answers
Tap a question for the short answer, then jump to the evidence.
The 2026 Concierge Medicine Forum drew a room the organizer estimates was about 80% physicians and 20% health care executives, split roughly evenly between people already in concierge medicine and people exploring it. Four threads stood out. Culture lasts longer when it has structure: huddles, written expectations and recognition that is specific. One speaker argued that underpricing, more than ambition, is what pushes concierge panels too high. An MSO attorney walked through what a buyer’s diligence team will open first, and the room left unresolved how physician autonomy survives outside investment. A compounding pharmacist described a regulatory floor that has moved since the GLP-1 shortages ended in 2025. Some legal and tax claims made from the stage differ from the public record, so Part 5 lists what to verify. Treat everything here as a starting point for your own advisers.
Who was at CMF 2026?
By the organizer’s estimate, about 80% physicians and 20% health care executives, with roughly half already practicing concierge medicine and half exploring it. CMT has not published a verified head count.
Go to the full answer ↓What did the Forum say about practice culture?
That a kind culture still needs structure. A session on practice culture recommended a daily huddle, a weekly staff meeting and recognition that names what someone did well.
Go to the full answer ↓Is underpricing really what drives oversized panels?
That was one speaker’s argument, not a finding. It fits the arithmetic: at a fixed revenue target, a lower fee means more members. Brief No. 41 covers what the time studies say about panel size.
Go to the full answer ↓What will a buyer or investor check first?
An MSO attorney listed membership agreements, management fee design, HIPAA handling of texts and apps, patient credit balances, employment screening and lease terms, among others. Part 4 has the full list.
Go to the full answer ↓Were the keynote’s Medicare and tax claims right?
Some match the statute or IRS text; others differ from the public record or could not be confirmed. Part 5 sets them side by side. Briefs 33 and 45 cover Medicare and tax treatment in depth.
Go to the full answer ↓What should I do in the next 90 days?
Pick a few items you can finish, not all of them. The action planner at the end of Part 5 sorts them by week, month and quarter.
Go to the full answer ↓Who came, what ran, what the room asked for
The 2026 Concierge Medicine Forum ran October 15 to 17 at the Forsyth Conference Center in Cumming, Georgia, north of Atlanta. CMT organizes the Forum, so this report is CMT writing about its own event. Read it with that in mind.
The program mixed clinical, scientific and business sessions. Over the days the stage covered practice culture, pricing and panel size, Medicare and tax structure, MSOs and exit planning, positioning, AI and the reading of medical evidence, an at-home ECG device, compounding pharmacy, and a closing session on movement and mindset.1 Practice Insight CMT original
The mix matters for how to read what follows. Half the room was still deciding whether to convert, so a good deal of advice was pitched at founders. Executives and investors in the room explain why MSO structure and exit planning drew some of the sharpest questions of the week.
What one attendee told us
CMT asked attendees for feedback after the Forum. One response, from a repeat attendee who agreed to public use, is quoted here. It is one person’s view and should be read that way, with no percentages drawn from it.3 Industry Research CMT original
“It’s on another level! I loved it!” · and, on logistics, “Agenda was clear and registration was easy.”
The same respondent was candid about what did not work. Breakouts of 30 to 45 minutes left too little time for questions. Round tables made the stage hard to see; small U-shaped rows were suggested instead. Some aesthetic-device exhibitors were described as “pushy,” and the respondent asked for vendors to be moved to a separate room. Saturday needed a stronger reason to stay.
Requests for next year leaned toward business: a marketing workshop, a physician leadership and business track, sessions on using AI well and safely, and real case studies of legal mistakes that led to warnings or fines. The respondent’s own takeaway was that nearly everyone uses AI tools while many remain afraid of them. That matches the national picture. In the AMA survey, 88% of physicians reported at least some concern about skill loss from AI, and patient privacy topped the list of worries.2
“The questions physicians ask us most are: Can this work for me? How do I tell my patients? What happens to my workload? Underneath each one is a deeper question. It’s no longer about being the best doctor in the world. It’s about being the best doctor for the world, for your patients and for your local community.”
Michael Tetreault, Editor-in-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today. Commentary from the CMT Media Desk, labeled as CMT’s view, not a research finding.4 CMT original
A good heart needs a system
The session on practice culture opened with an admission many practice owners will recognize: caring about your staff is not the same as managing them well.
“A good heart is not a substitute for good structure.” · from a session on practice culture, as captured in CMT’s session notes
The speaker’s argument was that policies, documentation and clear expectations protect a compassionate culture rather than replace it. Complaints about communication were framed as signals that a process needs fixing, not as personality problems.1 Practice Insight CMT original
Daily huddle, weekly meeting
The routine recommended from the stage was a short daily huddle plus a weekly staff meeting.1 This is well-trodden ground in primary care. AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW program lists an AMA module on implementing a daily team huddle, with a checklist and sample agenda, as a tool for building high-functioning teams.5 Practice Insight
Recognition that is specific
Suggested habits included handwritten notes that name something a person did well, a thank-you box, and branded items staff would actually wear.1 A Workhuman and Gallup study tracking more than 3,400 employees found those who received high-quality recognition in 2022 were 45% less likely to have left their job by 2024. It also found 55% of U.S. employees got no recognition or recognition that met none of the study’s quality tests.6 Industry Research
Workhuman sells recognition software, so read the size of the effect with that in mind.
One person who notices
The speaker’s practice assigns one team member, called the Dreamweaver, to watch for personal milestones among patients and staff. In the example shared, an older patient broke a bone in her leg a week before a long-planned trip to London. The practice sent a $9 tiara and a small London-themed gift. She wore the tiara on the trip and sent photos back.1 Practice Insight CMT original
The cost was trivial. The planning was not: someone had to know about the trip.
Check the cash before you give it
The session also mentioned modest cash gifts to staff on particular days.1 The IRS is direct on this point: cash or cash-equivalent items from an employer “are never excludable from income,” and gift cards redeemable for general merchandise are taxable. Occasional holiday gifts, flowers or snacks can qualify as de minimis benefits.7 Policy and Law
Run cash gifts through payroll, and ask your accountant.
The Dreamweaver idea works because it is a role, not a mood. A practice that wants the same effect can write the job down: who watches the calendar of patient and staff milestones, what budget they have, and who signs off. A related point from the stage was to use AI to draft meeting summaries from calendars and email. Before anything with patient information goes into an AI tool, confirm the vendor will sign a business associate agreement; HIPAA requires a written contract that limits how a business associate uses protected health information.8 Brief No. 36 covers this in more depth, and Brief No. 56 will take up culture and structure on its own.
Price low, and the panel grows to cover it
A keynote on Medicare and fees made a pricing argument that drew nods across the room. Limiting a panel to a few hundred patients feels risky, the speaker said, but the usual reason panels creep upward is that the fee was set too low to begin with.
The remedy offered was to raise the fee to thin the panel and add nurse practitioners or physician assistants for overflow. The speaker suggested no more than about 300 patients per clinician, and 150 to 200 for a very high-touch model.1 Practice Insight CMT original That is one speaker’s view, not a benchmark. It sits well below what physicians reported in the two national surveys that exist.
The surveys are old, and both predate most of today’s concierge networks. Brief No. 41 reviews the modeling studies on physician time, and Brief No. 46 has a calculator for testing a fee increase against likely attrition. Together they let you test the speaker’s argument against your own numbers rather than take it on faith.
During audience questions, one participant described a practice that frames physician time at $1,000 an hour and a membership at $12,000 a year.1 CMT’s arithmetic, offered only as an illustration: read literally, that fee buys 12 physician hours per member per year, and 300 such members would need 3,600 hours, far more than one physician works in a year. The room questioned whether “unlimited” access can be promised at all. The organizer urged working backward from desired income, overhead and panel size instead.
| Pricing advice from the stage | What to weigh before adopting it | Evidence type |
|---|---|---|
| Start at or above market and flex down for need, never up | A written, consistent hardship policy is easier to defend than case-by-case exceptions. | Practice Insight |
| Do not publish the price online; let patients ask | A trade-off with transparency. Some patients will not call a practice that hides its fee. Decide deliberately. | Practice Insight |
| Avoid discounts for hospital staff or physicians | Consistent with federal law: the Anti-Kickback Statute treats “anything of value” given to induce referrals as remuneration, and paying for referrals in federal programs is a crime.11 Ask counsel. | Policy and Law |
| Family bundles can work in practice, not in marketing | One physician described regretting an early family discount after a discounted relative needed a great deal of time. Price the time, not the household. | Practice Insight |
| Keep the clinician’s fee separate from products | Separate pricing for medications or supplements makes the membership easier to explain and audit. | Practice Insight |
The “only statement”
A later session on marketing offered a positioning exercise that pairs well with pricing. Write one internal sentence: we are the only practice in this market that offers a specific thing to a specific kind of patient. It is a working tool, not a tagline.1 Practice Insight CMT original
The presenter pushed past generic promises such as “we prioritize the relationship” toward observable ones: reviewing a new patient’s history before the first visit, or knowing the person beyond the chart. The patient type can be defined by a need or a feeling. A time-pressed executive and a patient who wants a doctor who knows the whole family value different things, and a fee that makes sense to one may not to the other.
What does a member get for the fee that they could not get for less elsewhere, and how many members can you give it to at once? If the answer to the second half is smaller than your current panel, the speaker’s diagnosis may apply to you.
What a buyer opens first
An MSO attorney gave the most document-heavy session of the Forum. The message was to fix compliance gradually now, even if a sale is years away, because a buyer paying a serious price will read everything.
The structure described was a physician at the top of two entities. The medical practice keeps clinical staff, medical equipment, drugs and payer contracts. A management services organization takes nonclinical functions under a written agreement and earns a management fee.1 Practice Insight CMT original The diagram is simple, the attorney warned; the tax, contract and state-law work behind it is not. Brief No. 22 covers MSOs in concierge medicine, and Brief No. 53 will cover building one.
| Management fee approach | How it was described | Caution raised from the stage |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage of revenue | The MSO receives an agreed share of practice revenue. | May be barred by fee-splitting rules in some states. |
| Fixed fee | A set monthly or annual amount. | Revisit as staff, locations, services or overhead change. |
| Cost-plus | The practice reimburses MSO costs plus a markup. | Support the markup; a third-party health care appraiser was suggested. Examples given were illustrations, not a range. |
The attorney also proposed profits interests in the MSO as a way to reward associate physicians or office managers who cannot or do not want to buy into the practice, and described them as potentially tax-free when granted. That was a presentation claim. Award design and tax treatment need specific advice.1
Spell out what the membership provides. The session warned against terms that look like underwriting insurance risk.
Review who owns and controls what, and how the management fee is calculated.
Map how protected health information moves through texting, apps and outside labs. The attorney said concierge practices overlook this even outside insurance.
Track refunds owed to patients. Small balances can grow once state deadlines, interest and penalties apply.
Check employment practices and screen staff against federal exclusion lists.
Anti-kickback and Stark questions, plus marketing, supervision of NPs and PAs, and telehealth licensing across states.
Some states require registration for third-party billing; one client’s missed filing surfaced in an audit roughly 15 years later. Leases and vendor contracts may need consent before transfer.
For physician-owned property: fair market rent, a long term (10 to 15 years was suggested), an escalator and clear expense allocation. Map the structure with counsel before copying it.
State attention is real. Oregon’s Senate Bill 951, signed June 9, 2025, bars an MSO that contracts with a medical group from owning or controlling a majority of its equity, and from exercising de facto control over clinical matters such as clinician hiring, staffing levels and payer contracts. Its limits apply from January 1, 2026, to new entities and to those sold or transferred after signing, and from 2029 to older ones.12 Policy and Law Other states have their own rules; this is one example.
Investment was the thread the room did not tie off. The attorney described the usual private equity pattern of a larger platform practice with smaller bolt-on practices, and said moving back-office staff into an MSO should be invisible to patients. A participant pushed back: patients notice changes at the front desk, in billing and in whether their physician still seems independent. The attorney agreed problems can emerge as an MSO grows.1 Practice Insight CMT original
Nothing in the session showed how to protect autonomy or the patient experience after a deal. The broader survey data above point to why physicians worry, though they do not describe concierge practices specifically. Brief No. 34 covers succession and sale, and Brief No. 54 will look at what happens to patients after the deal.
Before you act on what you heard
A compounding pharmacist gave the most practical checklist of the Forum. It is worth having in hand before any practice adds compounded drugs to a membership.
The pharmacist’s strongest cases for compounding were narrow and patient-specific: a different dosage form, a concentration that is not sold commercially, or a product without an ingredient the patient cannot tolerate. For hormone therapy, the advice was to ask what the patient will actually use before choosing a cream or a capsule. The pharmacist also warned that adding B12 to a GLP-1 does not by itself make a compounded copy permissible.1 Practice Insight CMT original
Licensure
Is the pharmacy licensed for each state where your patients live and for the activity involved?
Product documentation
Ask for certificates of analysis and, where relevant, potency, sterility and stability support for extended beyond-use dates.
Formulation and rationale
Document the patient-specific reason for a compounded preparation in the chart.
Consent
Make consent language say plainly that the finished compounded drug is not FDA-approved, even when its ingredients are.
Labeling
If you co-brand, keep the dispensing pharmacy clearly identified.
Adverse events
Confirm how the pharmacy receives and tracks reports.
Advertising
Avoid marketing that compares a compound to a branded drug.
Office stock
Office stock without a patient-specific prescription comes from 503B outsourcing facilities, not 503A pharmacies.17
Dependence
Do not build the practice around one class of compounded drug whose status can change. Buying patient-specific prescriptions and reselling them at a markup was flagged as a problem.
Brief No. 52 will cover compounding diligence in full.
Claims to check before you act
A keynote on Medicare and fees made a series of legal and tax claims from the stage. Some match the public record. Some differ from it, and some CMT could not confirm. The table below sets each claim, as summarized in CMT’s notes, beside what the public record shows. None of it is legal or tax advice. Brief No. 33 covers Medicare, Brief No. 45 covers HSA and FSA treatment, and the forthcoming Brief No. 51 examines the routine exam argument directly.
| Said from the stage | What to verify, and what CMT found | Evidence type |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription medicine has been built into federal law as compliant since 1965, because routine physicals are excluded from Medicare. | The Social Security Act does exclude “routine physical checkups” in section 1862(a)(7). It also now covers an initial preventive physical exam and an annual wellness visit, so what counts as routine is not simple.18 A 2002 CMS memo, described by GAO, says retainer agreements are allowed if they do not violate Medicare rules, and that fees for covered services may be prohibited charges.9 | Policy and Law |
| HHS approved this model for a national concierge network in 2002. | CMT did not find a Secretary-level approval, and GAO’s 2005 report does not mention one. GAO describes the March 2002 CMS memo above, which states conditions rather than approving any company.9 | Policy and Law |
| The federal government has prosecuted cash health care only four times in 61 years. | CMT could not confirm the count. The public record shows civil settlements, not criminal prosecutions: an OIG alert in 2004 described a Minnesota physician who settled, and Brief No. 33 covers a 2007 settlement.9 | Policy and Law |
| A practice later owned by a large national company was prosecuted in 2025 for marketing without routine exam framing. | OIG reports that GreenField Health System of Portland, Oregon, self-disclosed and agreed in April 2025 to pay $286,606.09 and repay $573,212.18 to beneficiaries over annual membership fees charged to Medicare patients. It was a civil settlement over alleged assignment violations; OIG gave no detail on marketing.19 A news report says Optum acquired GreenField in 2021.20 CMT found no source for the fee level described from the stage. | Policy and Law |
| Opting out of Medicare is unnecessary and may draw future scrutiny. | Whether to stay in or opt out depends on how the practice is built; Brief No. 33 lays out both paths. The future-scrutiny scenario was the speaker’s prediction, not a reported event. | Practice Insight |
| IRS Publication 502 makes the membership fee a qualified medical expense if framed around the annual physical. | Publication 502 lets taxpayers include an annual physical exam and diagnostic tests, and says “You don’t have to be ill at the time of the examination.” It does not mention membership or retainer fees, excludes health club dues, and generally excludes prepayment for care well beyond the year.21 Brief No. 45 found no IRS ruling that decides the question. | Policy and Law |
| 503B outsourcing facilities supply office stock; 503A pharmacies compound for individual patients. | Consistent with FDA: 503A compounding requires a valid prescription for an identified individual patient, and an outsourcing facility “may or may not obtain prescriptions for identified individual patients.”17 Some CMT notes had these reversed. | Policy and Law |
| After a shortage ends, routinely compounding the same drug is restricted. | Consistent with FDA. The semaglutide shortage was declared resolved February 21, 2025, and FDA’s enforcement discretion ended for 503A compounders after April 24 and for 503B facilities on May 22, 2025. FDA says compounded drugs “are not approved by FDA” and that compounding essentially copies of commercially available drugs is restricted.22 | Policy and Law |
| Certain peptides will be reviewed again in February 2027. | Time-sensitive and not confirmed by CMT. Check FDA’s current position and your pharmacy’s documentation before prescribing. | Practice Insight |
| A credit-card-sized device produces an on-demand 12-lead ECG, cleared for rhythm assessment but not chest pain. | The presenter drew that line. Check the device’s current FDA labeling and cleared indications yourself before buying or recommending it. | Practice Insight |
The keynote’s central idea, that a practice should be precise about what the fee buys, is sound and runs through Briefs 33 and 45. The supporting history and enforcement claims are where the trouble lies. A speaker on reading medical evidence offered a habit that applies here too: compare answers from more than one source, go back to the primary document, and challenge any statement that does not hold up. Take this table to your attorney rather than the slides.
Post-Forum action planner
Check what you have done. The meter tracks progress across the list. It is a planning aid built from the sessions above, not professional advice, and nothing is saved when you leave the page.
Your next 90 days
This week
Within 30 days
Within 90 days
Before signing with an MSO or investor
Separate claim from fact
Treat what you heard on stage as a lead. Verify the legal and tax pieces against the primary source before acting.
Build the structure
Huddles, written roles, a fee you can defend and a diligence file a buyer could open tomorrow.
Lead the person first
The organizer closed on this: your practice will never be healthier than the person leading it. Pick the hard change you have been talking yourself out of.
How this brief was built
This brief is a Forum report. Its main source is CMT’s own record of the 2026 Concierge Medicine Forum: AI-generated summaries of session recordings, reviewed by CMT editors. Those summaries are not transcripts, and recordings sometimes captured overlapping audio, so wording attributed to sessions is approximate. Every statement from the stage is treated as the speaker’s assertion, not as fact. Speakers and attendees are not named. Hallway and networking conversations were treated as off the record and are not used. One attendee’s post-event survey response, given with consent to public use, supplies themes and short quotes only.
Where outside evidence strengthens or tempers a point, CMT opened and checked it in October 2026: federal statute, IRS, FDA, HHS and OIG pages, a GAO report, two peer-reviewed physician surveys, AMA survey reports, a law firm summary of an Oregon statute, one news report and one company-sponsored recognition study, labeled Industry Research. Growth figures from Health Affairs combine concierge and direct primary care and are labeled that way. No DPC-only data are used. Medicare, tax and compounding material is general and educational. Rules vary by state and change, and CMT recommends review by a health care attorney and a tax adviser before acting on any of it.
How to read the evidence types
Every key finding is labeled by evidence type. Labels describe the type of evidence, not its value. Each type answers different questions. Funding is disclosed on every source.
Randomized trials and systematic reviews.Best for cause and effect.
Large observational studies and government data.Best for trends at scale.
Surveys, smaller studies and expert consensus.Best for real-world experience.
Company-sponsored or company-reported data that is not peer-reviewed.Best for early signals and operating data.
Statutes, regulation and official guidance.Best for what is required.
What we don't know
- How many people attended CMF 2026, and the full results of the attendee survey. The 80/20 split is the organizer’s estimate.
- Whether underpricing causes over-paneling in concierge practices. No study has tested it.
- How patients experience a practice after outside investment. The room raised the question and did not settle it, and CMT found no concierge-specific study.
- The current FDA status of specific peptides discussed at the Forum, which a speaker described as under review. Check before prescribing.
- The source for several keynote statements, including the count of federal enforcement actions and the fee level of the practice cited as a cautionary example.
How to cite this brief
External review: this brief has not yet been reviewed by an outside expert. When review is complete, the reviewer is credited by name above with any conflicts of interest, and the version number is updated. Reviewers check accuracy and fairness; CMT is responsible for the final content.
Corrections policy: when an error is identified, CMT corrects it in the open and updates the version number above. Send corrections to the editor through conciergemedicinetoday.net.
Related CMT Research Briefs
References
- Concierge Medicine Today. Concierge Medicine Forum 2026 (CMF 2026), Forsyth Conference Center, Cumming, Georgia, October 15 to 17, 2026: session recordings, summarized by AI note-taking software and reviewed by CMT editors. Speakers not named; statements are the speakers' own assertions, not verified findings. CMT original; unpublished notes.Funding: Concierge Medicine Today (organizer of the Forum and publisher of this brief; the event is supported by attendee registration and exhibitor fees). CMT original
- American Medical Association. More than 80% of physicians use AI professionally: AMA survey (2026 Physician Survey on Augmented Intelligence). O'Reilly KB. AMA. March 12, 2026. www.ama-assn.orgFunding: not stated (conducted and published by the American Medical Association)
- Concierge Medicine Today. CMF 2026 post-event attendee survey: one response (repeat attendee), submitted October 19, 2026; respondent consented to public use. Themes and short quotes only; not representative. CMT original; unpublished.Funding: Concierge Medicine Today (self-conducted; no outside funder). CMT original
- Concierge Medicine Today. Media Desk: quotes from the Editor-in-Chief, FAQs and data. Accessed October 2026. conciergemedicinetoday.netFunding: Concierge Medicine Today (self-published; no outside funder) CMT original
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, EvidenceNOW Tools for Change. Implementing a Daily Team Huddle (American Medical Association STEPS Forward module, Yu E, 2015). Page last reviewed February 2025. www.ahrq.govFunding: federal (AHRQ EvidenceNOW page); module produced by the American Medical Association
- Workhuman and Gallup. New Workhuman and Gallup research finds recognition in the workplace could prevent 45% of voluntary turnover (more than 3,400 U.S. employees tracked 2022 to 2024). Press release. September 18, 2024. gallup.comFunding: not stated (joint release by Workhuman, which sells employee recognition software, and Gallup)
- Internal Revenue Service. De minimis fringe benefits. Last reviewed or updated June 28, 2026. www.irs.govFunding: federal (Internal Revenue Service publication)
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. Business Associate Contracts (sample business associate agreement provisions). January 25, 2013. hhs.govFunding: federal (HHS Office for Civil Rights publication)
- U.S. GAO. Physician Services: Concierge Care Characteristics and Considerations for Medicare (GAO-05-929). August 2005. Full text via govinfo.gov. www.govinfo.govFunding: federal (GAO; study required by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003)
- Alexander GC, Kurlander J, Wynia MK. Physicians in retainer ("concierge") practice: a national survey of physician, patient, and practice characteristics. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2005;20(12):1079-1083. pure.johnshopkins.eduFunding: mixed: professional society (AMA Institute for Ethics), foundation (Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program) and academic (MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics)
- HHS Office of Inspector General. A Roadmap for New Physicians: Fraud and Abuse Laws (Anti-Kickback Statute section). oig.hhs.govFunding: federal (HHS Office of Inspector General publication)
- Romney AD, Maughn RD, Pakzad E. Oregon SB 951 restricts corporate medical practice. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. June 13, 2025. Law firm commentary on Oregon Senate Bill 951 (2025). www.dwt.comFunding: not stated (law firm analysis)
- American Medical Association. Physician Practice Benchmark Survey (2024 results: share of physicians in private practice, 2012 to 2024). Page updated June 24, 2026. www.ama-assn.orgFunding: not stated (conducted and published by the American Medical Association)
- Harrop C. Snapshot: reactions and responses to the growth in concierge and direct primary care (summary of Zhu et al., Health Affairs). MGMA. December 30, 2025. www.mgma.comFunding: not stated (MGMA summary; the underlying Health Affairs study was funded by AHRQ, the Commonwealth Fund and the NIHCM Foundation)
- Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Fee-based primary care is rapidly rising in U.S., hastening doctor shortages for the public. December 2025. carey.jhu.eduFunding: not stated (university news release)
- Zhu JM, et al. Physician perspectives on private equity in health care. JAMA Internal Medicine research letter. March 11, 2024. Summary via HealthDay. www.healthday.comFunding: not stated
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FD&C Act provisions that apply to human drug compounding (sections 503A and 503B). www.fda.govFunding: federal (U.S. Food and Drug Administration publication)
- Social Security Act, section 1862 (42 U.S.C. 1395y): Exclusions from coverage and Medicare as secondary payer, subsections (a)(1)(K), (a)(1)(P) and (a)(7). Compilation via Social Security Administration. www.ssa.govFunding: not stated (federal statute)
- HHS Office of Inspector General. GreenField Health System agreed to pay $286,000 for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law by requesting payment from beneficiaries in violation of an assignment agreement (enforcement action, April 23, 2025; posted May 9, 2025). oig.hhs.govFunding: federal (HHS Office of Inspector General publication)
- Schwartz A. A few years after purchase, health care giant Optum closes longstanding Portland clinic. Willamette Week. February 2026 (date per URL). www.wweek.comFunding: not stated (news report)
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 502 (2025): Medical and Dental Expenses (entries for Physical Examination, Health Club Dues and Future Medical Care). www.irs.govFunding: federal (Internal Revenue Service publication)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA clarifies policies for compounders as national GLP-1 supply begins to stabilize. Content current as of April 1, 2026. www.fda.govFunding: federal (U.S. Food and Drug Administration publication)
Educational and informational only. This CMT Research Brief does not constitute medical, legal, tax, financial, accounting or other professional advice, and it does not create a professional relationship of any kind. Statements about laws, regulations, tax rules and payer policies are general, may not reflect the rules in your state, and can change after publication. Consult a qualified attorney, accountant, tax adviser, compliance professional or licensed clinician before acting on anything here.
Independence. Concierge Medicine Today is an independent publication. It does not accept payment for favorable coverage, and it does not favor one practice model over another. Company names and products are mentioned for context only and are not endorsements. Funding is disclosed for every source in the reference list.
Accuracy. CMT verifies figures against their original or best available sources at the time of publication. Where a figure is an estimate, an inference or a company-reported number, the brief says so. This content is not without possible error or omission.
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