Direct Primary Care vs. Concierge Doctor
It’s hard find a doctor and nearly impossible to get in to see them when you need them. These are common issues with insurance-only doctors’ offices. There are two kinds of practice models that you’ll see mentioned when you’re researching alternative options practices: “concierge medicine” and “DPC,” or Direct Primary Care.
How to Find a Direct Primary Care Doctor
DPC Frontier Mapper (linked here) is a good source for finding DPC practices in your area. But beyond that, what are the things you should be thinking about to determine which practice(s) will be the best fit for you?
Please Bother Me! That’s What I’m Here For
Twice in the last two weeks, I’ve talked with patients who have had urgent issues pop up after-hours. Both patients decided to head to an urgent care clinic and got good treatment, though it was expensive. One of them said “I didn’t want to bother you.”
And that made me stop and think — how do my patients know when to go to the emergency room, and when to use an urgent care center? And when should they call me instead?
Don’t Go to Urgent Care Again
We deserve to go back to a time when you could call your doctor when you got sick or hurt, and that doctor also knew about your medical history and could treat you as a whole patient. If you are my patient, I will rarely tell you to go to urgent care. I want you to call me first, and we will talk about what you might need.
Does DPC Save Money?
Sometimes people balk at the idea of a subscription fee to a DPC doctor. You still need to have health insurance to cover emergency and catastrophic care (although some people opt out of this). So this is just more money spent, right? But there are financial savings, too.
Why I Decided on a DPC Practice
My doctor is awesome. But he’s trapped in a system that he can’t control. He has thousands of patients under his care and he is forced to see 20 or 30 patients every day. And even as hard as he works, I had to wait six months to see him. There’s gotta be a better way, right?
Direct Primary Care is the better way.
What is Direct Primary Care?
Direct Primary Care (or DPC or short) is a really simple concept. It’s a primary care relationship between the doctor and the patient without anyone in the middle to affect care. But what does that mean?