Direct primary care
Encyclopedia
In the USA Direct Primary Care (DPC) is primary care
Primary care
Primary care is the term for the health services by providers who act as the principal point of consultation for patients within a health care system...

 offered direct to the consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

, without insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...

 intervention. It is an umbrella term which incorporates various health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

 delivery systems that involve direct financial relationships between patients and health care providers.

One niche variant of direct primary care is concierge medicine
Concierge medicine
Concierge medicine is a relationship between a patient and a primary care physician in which the patient pays an annual fee or retainer. This may or may not be in addition to other charges. In exchange for the retainer, doctors provide enhanced care...

.

Direct primary care can remove many of the financial barriers to accessing care when needed. Often, there are no insurance co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance fees thus avoiding the overhead and complexity of maintaining relationships with insurers.

Under this model, patients may pay a combination of visit fees and/or fixed monthly fees which grant them access to a set of medical services, including same and next-day appointments, both in the form of house-calls and office visits.

Typically a DPC arrangement benefits from pairing with either:
  • A high-deductible health plan, as DPC alone will not cover catastrophic health care such as most surgeries

  • A health savings account
    Health savings account
    A health savings account is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan . The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account...

    , or health reimbursement account as the associated tax-benefits can generally be applied to DPC and other medical expenses.

Advantages

Direct primary care practices do not typically accept insurance payments, thus avoiding the overhead and complexity of maintaining relationships with insurers, which can consume as much as $0.40 of each medical dollar spent.

Because direct primary care payments are typically paid over time, rather than in return for specific services, the economic incentives are such that the long-term health of the patient is the most lucrative situation for the doctor. As such, preventative care gains greater emphasis under DPC.

Because the primary care physician
Primary care physician
A primary care physician, or PCP, is a physician/medical doctor who provides both the first contact for a person with an undiagnosed health concern as well as continuing care of varied medical conditions, not limited by cause, organ system, or diagnosis....

 is better compensated than they would be under insurance billing, they can afford to spend more time with the patient, rather than simply referring them to a highly-paid specialist after a short consultation.

Examples

  • Hello Health (Brooklyn, NY)
  • MedLion (Monterey, CA)
  • Organic Medicine Now (Charleston, SC)
  • Qliance Medical Group (Seattle, WA)
  • San Francisco On Call Medical Group (San Francisco, CA) - no monthly fee, rather charge flat cash fees per visit
  • Direct Care Group

See also

  • Concierge medicine
    Concierge medicine
    Concierge medicine is a relationship between a patient and a primary care physician in which the patient pays an annual fee or retainer. This may or may not be in addition to other charges. In exchange for the retainer, doctors provide enhanced care...

  • Consumer driven health care
    Consumer driven health care
    Defined narrowly, consumer-driven health care refers to third tier health insurance plans that allow members to use personal health savings accounts , Health Reimbursement Accounts , or similar medical payment products to pay routine health care expenses directly, while a high-deductible health...

  • Health care in the United States
    Health care in the United States
    Health care in the United States is provided by many separate legal entities. Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by the private sector...

  • Primary Care
    Primary care
    Primary care is the term for the health services by providers who act as the principal point of consultation for patients within a health care system...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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