Direct Primary Care of West Michigan has been following news headlines and watching the direct primary care movement grow. This piece comes to us from Michelle Andrews, whose article was recently featured on NPR. It outlines what the DPC model is for the uninitiated, and shows how it can benefit families and employers alike.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
Back in the day, people paid for routine, primary medical care on their own and used insurance only when something serious came up. Some primary care doctors are betting that model can thrive again through a monthly subscription for routine care and a high-deductible insurance policy to take care of the big stuff.
It’s easy to understand the appeal of direct primary care, as it’s called, for doctors and patients. Doctors charge a monthly fee, generally from $50 to $150, to provide routine clinical care and consultation, sometimes including basic lab work and tests. Patients who need other care — an MRI or surgery, for example — would be covered by their insurance policy, if they have one.
Freed from having to devote time and money to managing insurance claims, doctors say they can accept fewer patients and spend more time with them without focusing on the question of which services are paid for.
In perhaps the largest effort of its kind, the state of New Jersey recently kicked off a pilot program with Philadelphia-based direct primary care provider R-Health that aims to enroll at least 60,000 state employees in the first three years.
Not surprisingly, the program is particularly appealing to people with chronic conditions, says Mason Reiner, CEO of R-Health.
“Those are the folks who really need and can benefit from relationship-based primary care,” he says. “It can make a big difference for them and for the state, since so much of the cost of care is driven by these folks.”
You can read the full article by Michelle Andrews by visiting NPR.org.
Whether you’re interested in becoming a patient of Direct Primary Care of West Michigan, or if you still have questions about our practice or the DPC model in general, please feel free to reach out! You can contact us by email or give us a call at (616) 202-4088 and we’ll set aside a time for you to visit, ask any questions and get acquainted with us.