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What Is Direct Primary Care? Could The DPC Healthcare Model Work for You?

Writer's picture: Kathryn Hauer, CFP®, EAKathryn Hauer, CFP®, EA

Updated: 19 hours ago

Doctor and little kid - AI Generated
AI-generated image using DALL-E AI

Back in the Anne of Green Gables days, folks relied on one small-town doctor for all their needs and paid him in cash installments or maybe eggs and a few chickens. Sick people went to a little home office for medical care; for house calls, the doctor would heave his black medical bag into the roadster and careen around the bend to save a dimpled 3-year-old with damp blond curls from a deadly 3 a.m. bout of diphtheria. The doctor was your friend and neighbor, and you caught up with him about village news after getting care for those pesky hemorrhoids he had to cauterize. Those were the days! Right?


Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a form of healthcare that is gaining popularity. Is it for you? Read more here about the benefits and pitfalls of DPC and if it might work for you and your family.


What is Direct Primary Care?

According to Palmetto Promise, the DPC model offers unlimited care in which “for a flat, monthly fee (often called membership dues), patients receive preventative and diagnostic medical care. Unlike some ‘concierge care’ models, where high monthly fees and insurance companies are billed for service, Direct Primary Care practices rely solely on membership dues paid by the patient or fees for a la carte services.” Membership fees vary, but at one South Carolina DPC facility, Palmetto Proactive Healthcare, the estimated $90,000 per physician per year cost savings can result in a $60 per month membership fee for individual patients. The monthly fee entitles members to as many office visits and telehealth calls as they need with no additional costs or insurance billing.


Advantages of the DPC Model

DPC offers great benefits, especially for families with young children and people who struggle with their health. If you need to go to the doctor often, DPC might be just the ticket for managing your healthcare needs.


  • Cost-effective: If you and your family visit the doctor frequently, you can save money on per-visit co-pays and your yearly deductible.

  • Easy access to doctors: Getting an appointment with a busy insurance-based doctor can take weeks or months, amd when you get there, you barely have enough time to ask questions and get your arms around your medical issues. A well-run DPC facility should get you in to see your doctor the same or next day while giving you all the time in the world to talk to your doctor.

  • A simpler process with no middlemen: Neither you nor your doctor need to work with an insurance company to get approvals or reimbursements. You pay a monthly fee to the doctor, and they treat you for all health issues within their capabilities. If you need a specialist, you’ll have to schedule it with another provider and pay for that visit and treatment (so you probably do need to carry a low-cost, high-deductible health insurance plan), but most of your care should fit within the parameters of your membership.

  • Quicker diagnoses: In this kind of patient-focused care, you’ll see your doctor right away and get the problem taken care of quickly. That means starting to heal up faster and minimizing worry.

  • Same doctor for personalized service: You’ll know your doctor, and they’ll know you. Over time you’ll build a relationship that will help you be your healthiest. The benefits of disease prevention are well documented. The non-profit Trust for America’s Health found that “an investment of $10 per person per year in proven community-based programs to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and prevent smoking and other tobacco use could save the country more than $16 billion annually within five years.” Imagine what patient-focused care for communities across America could mean for the nation’s health.


Disadvantages of the DPC Model

DPC isn’t all sunshine and roses. It comes with real concerns that could be showstoppers in some situations.


  • Healthcare insurance still required: Even with DPC, people still need to pay for a health insurance policy to cover prescriptions, non-routine health conditions, hospitalization, and other medical needs. A DPC family membership plus the cost of health insurance for parents and a couple of kids could be unaffordable.

  • Scarceness of primary care physicians: From a doctor’s perspective, a DPC model could be less conducive to making the big bucks than working as a high-profile specialist. More focused time-intensive care means that more doctors are needed. Most doctors spend a maximum of 15 minutes per patient. When doctor’s offices in hundreds of towns in fifty states across the nation extend the duration of an in-office visit, it doesn’t take a math whiz to see how many more doctors will be needed and how the revenue for these doctors could drop. Tthe reduction of administrative burdens will increase revenue to a degree, but only doctors and nurse practitioners can spend the ever-multiplying minutes with patients, inherently reducing the number of memberships they can sell.

  • Small-town constraints and privacy issues: In smaller towns and rural areas with fewer doctors, it could be hard for the DPC model to provide unlimited care to its many members. And the converse of personal, intimate care is nosiness and gossip. Additionally, a doctor might not like the patients they have committed to see so regularly, and patients may not feel comfortable with the only doctor available to them.

  • Employer policies: Much of the U.S.’s healthcare system runs through employers, and a DPC model might be hard to implement and fund, especially when an additional full healthcare insurance plan is still required.


Horse and Buggy Revival! Could The DPC Healthcare Model Work for You?

Everything old is new again. We’re drinking raw milk and having our babies at home. Beards and board games are back.  Modern DPC models could offer the best of the old days with cutting-edge modern healthcare benefits. 


Could the DPC healthcare model work for you? The best of American healthcare may be yet to come.


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