Direct Primary Care And Its Advantages

DPC stands for direct primary care. Direct primary care arrived on the healthcare scene in the 2000s. As time has passed, it has slowly but surely become popular. This is partly because people are frustrated with the traditional healthcare scene and partly because health insurance has become confusing and frustrating to navigate owing to its complexities. 

Also, healthcare has become very expensive. People who cannot afford healthcare and people who are frustrated with shelling out money for escalating monthly premiums often opt for an alternate model of healthcare known as direct primary care.

Direct primary care model of health care is in which the financial arrangement is directly between the patient and the healthcare provider. There is no room for insurance providers in the model, therefore, patients and direct primary care physicians do not have to file health insurance claims. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

In direct pay primary care, patients with primary care membership do not pay copays or monthly health insurance premiums. They pay a monthly fee to their DPC practice. It must be noted that since the practice doesn’t bill insurance companies, it cannot accept any form of insurance. Therefore, more often than not DPC is supplemented with HDHP or the high deductible health plan.

Benefits of Direct Primary Care 

Here are several advantages of choosing a primary care membership: 

More time with your healthcare provider:

Direct primary care doctors can spend more time with their patients because they do not have to prepare and file insurance paperwork. Therefore, there is more room for in-depth consultations and visits with the patients. Furthermore, the volume of patients at a DPC practice is lower than the volume of patients in a traditional healthcare setting. DPC doctors can thus spend more time with their patients, learn their history and story in detail, creating the opportunity for holistic and personalized care. 

Upfront pricing: 

In a traditional healthcare setting with an insurance plan, the patient leaves the office not knowing what exactly will be billed and how much insurance will be billed. After the copays and deductibles are applied and the discounts are decided on between the provider and insurance company, only then does the patient find out the details. 

This creates a situation of anxiety and frustration, and direct primary care eliminates this. Patients will know exactly how much they will be billed for the membership and the flat fee. Additionally, the fee doesn’t vary based on the services rendered. 

Unrestricted access: 

This is a major win. In a traditional healthcare setting, you may have to wait days or even weeks for your appointment. However, if you have a membership at a DPC practice, you will receive personalized care when you need it, either on the same day or the next day. In addition, you can contact your doctor online, through email or video conferencing and even text messages.