FAQ

Common questions, answered straight

Straight, educational answers with no sales pitch. For anything about your individual health, please talk with your own physician.

What is concierge primary care?

Concierge primary care is a membership-based model in which a physician deliberately keeps a small panel of patients so each one gets real time and attention. In practice it means longer visits, same-day or next-day availability, direct access to your own doctor rather than a call center, and a focus on prevention and long-term health instead of seven-minute problem visits.

How is this practice different from a regular doctor’s office?

Three ways: you see the same physician every time, visits are unhurried, and you can reach your doctor directly between visits. Because the practice is kept deliberately small, there is time for prevention and for the whole picture, including blood pressure, blood sugar, weight, and sleep, instead of one complaint per visit.

Does concierge membership replace health insurance?

No. The annual membership fee covers the personalized primary care relationship itself; it is not insurance and does not bill as insurance. Members should keep their existing coverage for laboratory work, imaging, specialists, medications, hospital care, and emergencies.

When and where does the practice open?

The practice will begin accepting members in 2028 in Brooklyn, New York, with telehealth available to members from the start. A second location in Greenwich, Connecticut is under consideration. A founding member list is forming now, and the people on it will be the first offered a place.

How much does membership cost?

Pricing has not been set yet. Dr. Maglakelidze would rather publish the fee and the final list of what membership includes once, when they are settled, than revise them repeatedly. They will appear on the membership page, and people on the founding member list will hear first.

What does a primary care physician take care of?

Most of what a healthy year asks for and most of what a hard one does: annual physicals and preventive screening, blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and prediabetes, thyroid and other hormonal conditions, metabolic health and weight, everyday illness and worrying symptoms, and coordination with specialists when you need one.

Why does this practice treat weight as part of primary care?

Because weight rarely travels alone. It is tied to blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, sleep apnea, and liver health, and those are best managed as one conversation by the doctor who knows you. Obesity medicine is a particular focus of Dr. Maglakelidze’s, so when you want help with weight, it is treated as the chronic disease it is, inside your primary care rather than referred out to a program.

Is obesity really a disease?

Yes. The American Medical Association formally recognized obesity as a disease in 2013, and major medical organizations worldwide agree. Obesity is a chronic, relapsing condition driven by hormonal signaling, genetics, and environment, not by a lack of willpower, and it responds to medical treatment the way other chronic diseases do.

How do GLP-1 medications work?

GLP-1 medications mimic a natural gut hormone (glucagon-like peptide-1) that your body releases after eating. They slow stomach emptying, improve insulin function, and, most importantly, act on appetite centers in the brain to reduce hunger and quiet constant thoughts about food. In clinical trials, people taking these medications alongside lifestyle changes lost substantially more weight than with lifestyle changes alone.

Why is it so hard to keep weight off after losing it?

When you lose weight, your body responds as if it were starving: hunger hormones rise, fullness hormones fall, and metabolism slows more than expected for your new size. This biological defense of the previous weight, not weak discipline, is why most diets end in regain. It is also why obesity medicine treats weight as a long-term medical condition rather than a short-term project.

Are anti-obesity medications safe to take long-term?

Modern anti-obesity medications are approved for long-term use, and because obesity is a chronic disease, long-term treatment is often appropriate; stopping medication commonly leads to weight regain, just as stopping blood pressure medication lets blood pressure rise. Every medication has side effects and isn’t right for everyone, which is why ongoing physician supervision matters.