Cleared by the Federal Trade Commission on December 11, 2009, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), a Cincinnati based consumer and household product giant, will be acquiring complete ownership of MDVIP, Inc., a concierge medicine network that they had acquired a 48% minority stake in 2007.¹ Based out of Boca Raton, Florida, MDVIP serves over 111,000 patients in 28 states and the District of Columbia through a network of over 310 physicians.² Each physician’s practice case load is limited to a maximum of 600 patients, allowing them provide more timely and customized service to each patient, in addition to providing a  more comprehensive personal healthcare plan.³

Physicians in concierge medicine provide care to their patients for an annual retainer fee, a significant portion of which is retained by the physician.⁴ Although the services provided by these physicians are similar to those provided by traditional physician offices, concierge medicine allows for same day appointment availability; longer patient visits; and, home visits, benefits which are often not feasible in modern primary care delivery.⁵  Additionally, concierge medicine often provides a greater proportion of health and wellness services, which emphasize preventative care and cooperative care plans.⁶   Patients benefit from increased access to physicians, who assist in guiding them through the continuum of care.⁷ Benefits to physicians include a lighter patient load, more time spent with individual patients, and less administrative paperwork.⁸  Although hospitalizations or other problems that cannot be dealt with in-network are not covered by the concierge fee, patients can often supplement their concierge network with insurance coverage or pay out-of-pocket for these services.⁹ 

P&G currently have no reported plans to change the management or strategy of MDVIP, which will continue to operate, for now, as a wholly owned subsidy.¹⁰ Prior to purchasing MDVIP, 20.8% of the products sold by P&G were products related to health and wellness.¹¹ However, in August 2009, P&G announced plans to sell its prescription drug operations to Warner Chilcott Ltd. allowing P&G to invest in its more lucrative consumer healthcare businesses.¹² The acquisition of MDVIP marks P&G’s continued expansion and growth within the healthcare industry and the growing popularity of concierge medicine as a healthcare delivery model.