How Direct Primary Care is Changing Health Care

April 25th, 2017 by Dr. Amat

Dr. Amat of Direct Primary Care of West Michigan is one of the many doctors who have joined the direct primary care movement happening all across the country. Under DPC, patients of all ages and incomes are finding that they have the quality of care they need for a very affordable monthly fee.

Read More About DPC on BusinessInsider.com

This piece on Business Insider explains the direct primary care movement in greater detail. It features doctors that opened DPC practices around the U.S. and examines the benefits from a patient point-of-view.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Dr. Bryan Hill spent his career working as a pediatrician, teaching at a university, and working at a hospital. But in March 2016, he decided he no longer wanted a boss.

He took some time off, then one day he got a call asking if he’d be up for doing a house call for a woman whose son was sick. He agreed, and by the end of that visit, he realized he wanted to treat patients without dealing with any of the insurance requirements.

Then he learned about a totally different way to run a doctor’s office. It’s called direct primary care, and it works like this: Instead of accepting insurance for routine visits and drugs, these practices charge a monthly membership fee that covers most of what the average patient needs, including visits and drugs at much lower prices.

That sounded good to him. In September, Hill opened his direct-primary-care pediatrics practice, Gold Standard Pediatrics, in South Carolina.

Hill is part of a small but fast-growing movement of pediatricians, family-medicine physicians, and internists who are opting for this different model. It’s happening at a time when high-deductible health plans are on the rise — a survey in September found that 51% of workers had a plan that required them to pay up to $1,000 out of pocket for healthcare until insurance picks up most of the rest.

That means consumers have a clearer picture of how much they’re spending on healthcare and are having to pay more. At the same time, primary-care doctors in the traditional system are feeling the pressure under the typical fee-for-service model in which doctors are incentivized to see more patients for less time to maximize profits.

Direct primary care has the potential to simplify basic doctor visits, allowing a doctor to focus solely on the patient.

Read the full article on BusinessInsider.com

Are you looking for a simpler way to get better health care for roughly the monthly cost of a phone bill? We invite you to visit Direct Primary Care of West Michigan and see the differences for yourself. We’d be happy to discuss any questions you may have about our practice or direct primary care in general and show you how easy it is to set up an appointment. To get in touch, simply fill out the form on our Contact Page.