Cleveland Clinic Joined a Trade Group That Counts Direct Primary Care as Part of Its Field. Its Founding Institutional Partners So Far Are Three Health Systems.

The Association of Membership Medicine Professionals announced on September 17 that Cleveland Clinic has joined as a founding institutional partner. AMMP is a trade group in its first year, and it describes its field as covering concierge medicine, direct primary care and hybrid models under one roof.

Look at the partner list and the roof gets narrower. AMMP’s site shows three founding institutional partners: Cleveland Clinic, Mass General and Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. All three are large health systems. The tier lists no direct primary care practice.

“Cleveland Clinic’s decision to join reflects the momentum we are building in this formation year,” said Jim Lawlor, DO, MBA, the association’s founder and board chair, in the announcement. “Their participation lends credence to the growing interest in diversified care delivery systems, in response to the burden placed on the fee-for-service ecosystem, rising patient demand for new ways to receive care, and the growing physician shortage.”

DPC has one seat on the board and none among the partners

AMMP’s own site says institutional membership “is set to open later in 2026,” and describes a framework built for “practices, health systems, and organizations of every size.” The association is recruiting a charter advisory council of 25 to 30 people, which it calls the primary pathway to future board leadership.

The partner tier isn’t a closed set of three. The announcement calls Cleveland Clinic “one of a growing number of institutions signing on,” and nothing published says a practice of any particular size is barred. What the tier has attracted so far is three health systems.

DPC does have a voice inside the association. AMMP’s leadership page lists Brad Brown, DO, founder of Strive Health DPC and medical director at Hint Health, as a charter director on the eight-person founding board. That is one seat. The other seven belong to Ohio State’s executive health program, Cleveland Clinic concierge medicine, Mass General Brigham concierge administration, Atrium Health’s concierge division, Emory’s concierge program, a management consultancy and SignatureMD’s sales organization.

One more detail belongs on the record. Lawlor is medical director of the Executive Health program at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, one of the three founding partners. Nothing about that is hidden or improper. It does say something about where the association’s center of gravity sits.

What the shared vocabulary covers over

Membership medicine is a real category, and the two models inside it do share something. Both charge a recurring membership fee.

Then look at the numbers.

Mass General Brigham publishes its concierge fee: $10,000 a year. The fee buys access, not care. “It does not cover the cost of the medical care delivered to you,” the program’s page says. “Your insurance plan will cover the medical services.” Cleveland Clinic describes a full self-pay concierge model and tells patients that “usually, annual membership fees aren’t covered by insurance, but you may wish to check with your insurance company.” Its concierge page lists no price.

The AAFP puts a DPC monthly membership at $50 to $100, with an average panel of 413 patients. At the top of that range the membership runs about $1,200 a year, and it covers the primary care itself instead of sitting on top of a claim.

The HSA statute defines only one of them

The HSA statute now has a definition for one of these two arrangements. Since January 1, 2026, Section 223(c)(1)(E) lets a patient keep contributing to a health savings account while paying for a direct primary care arrangement. To qualify, the arrangement has to consist “solely of primary care services provided by primary care practitioners,” compensated by “a fixed periodic fee,” and the fee cannot exceed $150 a month for one person or $300 a month for an arrangement covering more than one.

The statute also spells out what primary care services exclude: procedures that require general anesthesia, prescription drugs other than vaccines and laboratory services not typically administered in an ambulatory primary care setting.

Set Mass General Brigham’s $10,000-a-year fee against a $150 monthly ceiling and the distance is plain. The ceiling works out to $1,800 a year, under a fifth of what that founding partner charges. The program’s own page also says insurance covers the medical services, while the statute asks that a fixed periodic fee be the sole compensation for the care. The association’s vocabulary covers both arrangements. The statute defines only one.

Where DPC Fits

DPC physicians have a real reason to want more than one seat at this table. A body with three academic health systems behind it is the kind that shows up at a rulemaking comment period with staff and lawyers, and DPC has spent a decade being described in public by people who have never run one.

The risk is narrower and more specific than “concierge is different from DPC.” Advocacy written for a $10,000 program and advocacy written for a membership in the $50 to $100 range point in opposite directions on the questions that decide the next five years: the HSA cap, what counts as a primary care service, whether a fee has to cover the care or merely the door. If that $150 ceiling ever comes up for revision, a coalition built around programs like a $10,000 concierge membership has no particular reason to defend it.

The window for widening that is the charter advisory council, and it closes when the seats fill. Somewhere between 25 and 30 of them, chosen during a founding year whose institutional partners are three health systems and whose eight-person board seats five people in health-system roles.