What is Direct Primary Care?
At the foundation, direct primary care is the simplest form of medical care. A patient pays a doctor directly and in return, the doctor provides health care. Easy-peasy! I love the analogy of a gym membership - a member pays a monthly fee and can frequent the gym as many times as they want. With direct primary care, a patient pays a monthly fee and can access their doctor as much as necessary with no additional fees for visits and several aspects of their care covered in the monthly payment.
The most important advantage of direct primary care is the quality of care received and the relationships formed between doctors and patients. Direct primary care doctors typically have a panel of 500-800 patients, or often times even less, compared the the 4,000+ patient panel of a primary care doctor in the typical system. This allows patients to have more time with their doctor, less time in the waiting room, and less time waiting for an open appointment. Routinely, patients have 30-45 minute appointments with their doctor, who they see every visit, and spend little to no time in the waiting room. With all the extra time, doctors are able to connect with their patients as the people they are, not as a medical record number or a diagnosis. The decreased patient panel also allows patients to have direct access to their doctor: weekdays, weekends, after hours, and holidays; and it leaves the doctor time to research new treatments or diseases related to their patients and more time to coordinate care. The combination of personal relationships and unlimited access leads to an invaluable, high quality health care experience for patients.
How is works contrasts drastically from today’s healthcare system. Direct primary care doctors do not accept insurance, and this is by design. Insurance typically leads to hire costs for simple, usually cheap services. To clarify how the costs of healthcare differs, an example I often hear is the story of the $5,000 tee shirt. Not many people can afford a $5,000 tee shirt but in this example, for whatever reason, we need that tee-shirt. So, thankfully we have previously obtained “tee-shirt insurance” and this insurance company offers to pay 70% of the cost of any tee-shirt their client may need as long as they have met their deductible and paid their monthly fee. Therefore, insurance paid $3,500 of the cost of that tee-shirt and we “only” had to pay the remaining $1,500. The problem is, the tee-shirt is only worth $20. We were bamboozled! With direct primary care, doctors are able to get the tee-shirt directly from the supplier, and offer it to the client for $20 in their office. Direct primary care doctors do this for medications, labs, imaging, and supplies for in-office procedures. There are no random servicing fees, processing fee, documentation fees, etc.,etc., to help cover the salaries of administrators and insurance workers. There are no bills which surprise a patient six months after the visit occurred. And, instead of their being 20 administrators per 1 provider and an even larger pool of insurance hands which need a slice of the money pie, there is simply a doctor and a patient.
This is beneficial for both patients and doctors. Patients get better quality care, a personal relationship with their doctor, direct access via phone to their doctor, relaxed visits, and save money. Doctors get to focus more time on what they love doing: forming relationships with patients, preventing disease, and helping patient manage their health concerns.
Health insurance was designed to prevent bankruptcy from health care expenses. I do want to emphasize the importance of health insurance. In the event of a major accident or health complication requiring emergent needs, hospitalization, or surgery; healthcare is certainly beneficial. But as it turns out, the cost of routine, primary care is not as expensive as the systems makes it out to be. After all, a tee shirt is only $20.
Best in health,
Dr. Landen B Green, DO
