Family-physician relationships were examined in terms of solo vs group physician practices in two rural southern counties of different socioeconomic status. Comparatively speaking, County B was poorer, had a much higher representation of blacks, had lost considerable population during 1960-70, depended to a much lesser degree on manufacturing, and had a lower educational level than County A. However, County B relied primarily on solo physician practices. Utilizing a six item questionnaire, 378 households from both counties were surveyed to determine the physician-patient relationship; resulting met and unmet needs were determined via an eight symptom checklist. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) the more group-like a physician practice organization, the weaker the family-physician relationship; (2) the weaker the family-physician relationship, the greater the unmet need; and (3) the more group-like a physician practice organization, the greater the unmet need (of families which rely on that organization for primary care). Results revealed that family-physician relationships were stronger among solo-practice patients than among group practice patients and that the strength of family-physician relationships influenced the health level of the household. (JC)