DPC For Employers: Increasing Your Company’s Value Through Direct Primary Care
As an employer one of your primary concerns is keeping your employees healthy, and it’s not hard to guess why! An employee’s health directly impacts whether they’re able to show up on time, maintain productivity, and perform their basic job duties; but it also plays a huge factor in their overall happiness – something that largely affects the personal side of their work-life and determines how engaged they are both in the workplace and with clients. Healthy employees are happier, perform better at their jobs, and are able to work for many more years than those who are plagued by health issues – all things that have a direct impact on your company’s bottom line.
Studies show that, on average, a Direct Primary Care (DPC) member has 59 percent fewer emergency room visits, spends 30 percent fewer days in a hospital, and is referred to specialists 62 percent less often than a similarly situated patient in a traditional primary care practice. As an employer, you should pay close attention to these statistics. Why? By proactively supporting the health of your employees you can reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, enhance engagement, and make sure that the employees you care so deeply for are healthy and happy. It’s a win win for everyone!
What Is Direct Primary Care?
DPC is an alternative to traditional fee-for-service insurance billing. Without having to meet the burdensome requirements imposed by third-party insurers, a DPC practice has less administrative paperwork to process, and therefore can be supported by a smaller patient panel than a traditional primary care practice. As a result, the doctor is able to spend more quality time with each patient, getting to know the specific details of their personal, family, and medical history and enabling them to provide comprehensive care at a level that’s unattainable in many practices where the doctors can’t get valuable face time with patients due to red tape from insurance companies and time restrictions.
The Importance Of Doctor-Patient Facetime
According to recent research findings published in the American Journal of Managed Care, every time a patient seeks health care in a traditional primary care setting, he or she must allocate an average of 121 minutes to the task, including approximately 37 minutes of travel time and 87 minutes spent at the doctor’s office. Significantly, of those 87 minutes spent at the office, only 8-12 involve facetime with a doctor – which is less than 10 percent of the total amount of time the patient invests in seeking health care. It’s no wonder that more and more people are simply not going to the doctor, and their health is suffering as a result.
At Optimum Direct Care, a DPC practice in Orlando, our patients have a vastly different experience. In addition to same-day (or next-day) in-office appointment availability, our doctors provide unrestricted telemedicine consultations via voice, video conferencing, and SMS text. And, regardless of how a patient chooses to consult with us, the patient will never feel rushed. All of our health care services are provided in a relaxed setting in which patient questions are welcomed and encouraged!
How DPC Benefits Employers
As a company one of the best things you can do for your employees is to consider offering Direct Primary Care membership plans for your staff. By choosing DPC as a health benefits offering, your employees will benefit and so will your company! Many employers find that DPC is a convenient way to ensure quality care, enhance employee health and happiness, and provide a competitive advantage for recruitment and retention purposes that helps to decrease their turnover rates. More importantly, however, it provides significant cost savings for employers.
In 2020 it cost employers on average about $14,563 per year to provide group health insurance to employees with families and $5,946 to provide coverage for individuals – and those numbers are continuing to climb year after year! By partnering with a DPC group employers can offer better medical care to their employers at much lower rates, something that has a direct impact on your bottom line when you look at your company’s healthcare expenditures. For example, our membership pricing starts at $75 per month and has an initial sign-up fee of $150. Employers with 3 or more members qualify for special group rates that are 20% lower than our standard pricing, and receive $100 off the enrollment fee for each member! That’s a hefty savings when compared to what you would pay for traditional health plans. When you add to that the money you’ll save by having healthier employees who call out less, it’s easy to see why DPC is becoming such an appealing alternative to traditional health plans for many employers.
If you’re interested in making DPC available to your employees in the Orlando area, contact our team for more information.