Direct Primary Care or DPC, as it is affectionately known to its practitioners is a membership-based model of medical care that takes the highlights of old school medicine (the relationship you had with your doctor) and new technological advances of medicine (increased access, Telehealth, and more convenience) to improve the way health care professionals take care of their patients.
At its core, patients are charged a monthly membership fee to receive primary care services and increased access to their medical providers. The major difference between this and your traditional doctors’ office is that DPC practitioners generally do not take/bill insurance.
Why would you pay for medical care if you have insurance? Quite simply… it’s just better. By not billing insurance, medical practices can provide significant benefits that ultimately result in patients having increased access to their doctor, more convenient care, better quality service, and more time with their physician. Additionally, patients experience lower costs of care, pricing transparency, fewer delays in care all while emphasizing the relationship between the doctor and patient.
While no two direct primary care practices are the same, there are general tenets that remain true amongst most practices. They charge a reasonable monthly membership fee that is less than a potential per visit doctor’s fee, and they negotiate cash pricing for a lot of your common medical needs such as labs, imaging, and generic medications.
Often included with your monthly membership are unlimited visits with your doctor, no copays, extended time with your doctor, extended office hours, and Telehealth visits (phone calls, email, virtual visits). We do this all while offering reduced wait times (often less than 15 minutes) and same-day or next-day visits.
Direct Primary Care puts medicine back into the hands of the patient and the doctor by emphasizing the patient-doctor relationship which is the hallmark of medicine and excellent patient care.
Direct Primary Care is not an insurance plan and is not a substitute for health insurance and we recommend that everyone have some form of insurance (i.e. high deductible health plan).
More specifically, coverage in the case of catastrophic/major illness, terminal diagnoses, hospitalization, and for receiving care from medical providers outside of your DPC medical office. But in many cases, DPC can address most individuals’ basic healthcare needs at a better price and with less stress.
If you think this might be the practice for you, and you are in the Savannah, GA area, I encourage you to visit our website: www.HarvestHealthMD.com. If you are in the Savannah GA area but you are looking to join a direct primary care office please visit: the DPC Mapper
Harvest Health MD
