When Does Direct Primary Care Make Sense?

Direct Primary Care (DPC) is an innovative way to receive primary health care services. Instead of making co-pays, submitting claims, and dealing with insurance companies, a patient pays a set monthly membership fee to a DPC practice. In return, the patient receives unlimited access to his or her doctor.

Sound good? It should. That’s because a DPC membership makes sense for just about everyone. Here’s why:

DPC Can Reduce Stress

Recent studies show that the majority of Americans view health care as a major life stressor. The main reason is that rising costs are making it increasing difficult to receive necessary medical care. Additionally, people who live with a chronic condition, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, tend to worry even more. This is troubling, since persistent anxiety can contribute to a number of significant health issues, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.

A DPC practice has a transparent pricing schedule that is presented to patients up front. The monthly membership fee covers unlimited primary care office visits and services, including on-site tests and procedures, and generic prescription medications from the office formulary. As compared to traditional fee-for-service insurance billing, DPC can provide patients with substantial savings, as well as the freedom to visit their health care provider as often as needed – without any fear of being unable to pay.

DPC Increases Doctor-Patient Facetime

In a traditional primary care practice, it often takes days or even weeks just to get an appointment. Then, after an interminable wait, the patient typically ends up with just a few brief minutes with an overextended doctor, which can leave the patient feeling confused, insignificant, or ignored.

With DPC, you can get a same-day or next-day appointment with your doctor – and actually spend sufficient time with her to get to the bottom of your health issues (yes, you can discuss more than one issue during a single appointment, if you’d like). How is that possible? A DPC practice eliminates insurance companies from the primary health care equation. Because the doctor is not required to complete an abundance of insurer-required paperwork, she is able to spend more quality time with each patient.

Optimum Direct Care

At Optimum Direct Care, a DPC practice located in the Orlando, FL, area, our doctors get to know our patients personally, establishing long-standing doctor-patient relationships built on mutual trust and respect. If you’d like to find out if DPC makes sense for you, contact us for more information.