What is the Direct Primary Care Model?
Direct Primary Care is a popular alternative to the traditional health care model. DPC is adopted in the individual market and is beneficial both for doctors and consumers. The model emphasizes complete patient care, not volume or paperwork. A new health care approach allows doctors to spend more time seeing and treating their patients often with 24/7 availability.
This model is also referred to as a practice and payment model, concierge primary care. The DPC operates on patient membership fees. The patients pay their fees in the form of periodic payments. The fees cover most sets of primary care services including clinical and laboratory services, consultative services, care coordination, and comprehensive care management.
The idea of the DPC concept arose a long time ago but the model itself has been developed and implemented since the turn of the 21st century. Till now the model has grown from 21 to over 1000 practices.
DPC for corporate clients
DPC is a rather convenient way to provide quality care and improve employee health. It has become one of the essential perks employees can offer. As an employer benefit, it is a relatively new concept. Furthermore, you can avoid the administrative paperwork that is an annoying process for most of us.
How does Direct Primary Care differ from traditional health care?
Main advantages of Direct Primary Care:
- free or reduced-price screenings,
- unlimited access 24/7,
- same day or next day appointments,
- long-term savings,
- stronger healthcare provider-patient relationships.
Yet, there are people with lower incomes who rely on traditional medicine and healthcare practices, public insurance or might not be able to pay an extra monthly bill.
Now let’s dive into the differences of Direct Primary Care and traditional models with a side-by-side comparison.
| Characteristic | Direct Primary Care | Traditional Health Care |
| Orientation | Patient oriented (unlimited and longer visits) | Production oriented (less time to see and treat more patients) |
| Price | Fixed affordable monthly rate. Transparency of price | A variable cost. Hidden charges |
| Cost per visit | Depends on insurance plan | Free with monthly membership |
| Care | Integrated and convenient care | Fragmented care |
| Convenience | Convenient | Inconvenient |
| Appointment | Same day appointment | Average wait time for appointment |
| Personalization | Personalized approach | Impersonal: More crowded hospitals and often less personal approach |
| Access | Direct | Unnecessary barriers |
We provide all of the above-mentioned advantages to our patients. Schedule an Appointment or Contact us to get Telemedicine FREE consultation service via Skype, FaceTime and Viber.
