In an article written by Kathryn Mayer and published in the February 22 issue of
Employee Benefit News
, she explains that Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a new healthcare model that’s not only changing the way people get and receive care, but it’s also a concept that’s expected to grow substantially.
Direct primary care is a subscription-based, non-insurance model that gives individuals unlimited access to a primary care doctor generally for anywhere between $60 to $150 a month. There are no co pays, deductibles or coinsurance to see the doctor, although some doctors charge for home visits (and many DPC’s
do
provide such service!).
Direct Primary Care providers generally limit their practice to 600 or fewer individuals and families. They are available to see their patients immediately or within 24 hours and patients can contact them personally and directly by text, phone, or email at any time.
Patients have the advantage of more time alone with their doctor for discussion and medical planning, and DPC doctors focus on prevention as well as treatment. DPC providers typically provide cost savings of 20% or more and are returning the practice of medicine to the personalized approach that existed in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
The model also offers discounted services for much of what a patient needs, including tests, drugs and specialist visits.
Please see this
website
for Family Medicine of Weston (Florida) for an example of a website provided by a DPC practitioner. Although costs and services differ between practices, virtually all direct primary care providers have websites that explain how the model works, disclose all pricing, and offer substantially discounted prices for other services.
We are a proponent and supporter of the DPC model, and
Health Excellence
Plus
offers a Direct Primary Care plan (as one of its five available plan options) that makes medical cost sharing (as well as all the components of the “healthy care strategy”) available on a discounted basis
to those who have chosen to participate in DPC practices. Medical cost sharing can be discounted because of the proven ability of DPC providers to reduce medical costs for their members and to benefit the entire medical cost sharing community.
Please click
here
for details of how this optional program works.
Please contact us at
561-734-3884
for additional information. We are members of the DPC Coalition and the Free Market Medical Association, can refer you to DPC doctors in your area, and also have developed programs to work with DPC doctors to expand their practice and educate them about how
Health Excellence Plus
can benefit their patients. If you are a participant in a DPC practice and would like us to contact your doctor to help expand his or her practice or to educate them about the program, please contact us.
