There are 2 emerging trends in the US around primary care services: (1) concierge medicine and (2) direct primary care (DPC).
Current problems in primary care:
These two similar but uniquely different models of healthcare are trying to solve some common problems in our primary care system. Patients are seeking personalized healthcare with a physician that they know, like, and trust. Also, they would like to have access to that physician when they need it.
Unfortunately, It is difficult to get a timely appointment in most primary care offices. On average it takes 26 days to get an appointment to see a doctor. This is due to a combination of a physician shortage and the need for physicians to see more patients (in short appointment slots) due to the decreasing payments from insurance. It is typically difficult to speak directly with your doctor outside of office visits due the large number of patients that they see on a daily basis. This leads to hurried doctor visits after long waits in the clinic and then being limited to 1-2 concerns during the visit so the doctor can rush to the next patient.
Concierge medicine and DPC seek to solve these problems:
Direct primary care and concierge medicine both work to provide a higher level of service to their patients by having increased access and longer office visits. To make this model of personalized healthcare work they seek payment outside of the insurance system.
In the concierge model, patients pay a membership fee to be part of the practice AND the practice also bills the patient’s insurance. Typically they commit to at least a year long membership.
Direct primary care (DPC) does not accept insurance for office visits and instead has a low monthly membership fee that allows direct access to their physician through in person or video visits, text, email, or phone calls.
DPC vs Concierge Medicine
| Direct Primary Care | Concierge Medicine | |
| # of patients | 500-700 | 150-600 |
| Membership costs* | $77 | $183 |
| Commitment | Month to month | Annual |
| Bills insurance | No | Yes |
| May use insurance for labs, medications, and imaging | Yes | Yes |
In addition, DPC practices typically offer discount pricing on labs, medications, and imaging.
For example, at Blue Ocean Family Medicine, medications can be dispensed from the office at a low cost, often less than what you can pay at the pharmacy with insurance. Recently, we dispensed 90 days of a blood pressure medication for $0.20. Also, we contract directly with labcorp to get low cost labs and work with imaging centers to get the lowest available pricing.
If you live in Hendersonville, or the Nashville area, then please schedule a free no-obligation visit to learn more about how DPC works at Blue Ocean Family Medicine.
If you are interested in finding a DPC practice near you then check out https://mapper.dpcfrontier.com/
To find a concierge family medicine practice search findmydirectdoctor.com/cm/cfm
