Direct Primary Care is an innovative new form of practicing medicine for primary care physicians that has gained in popularity in recent years. This increase in popularity has been driven by 3 primary factors: Increased ability to deliver better medical care, enhanced relationships with patients, and less administrative work allowing for better work life balance.
1. Increased Ability to Deliver Better Medical Care:
Over the past 50 years, the role of the primary care physician has changed from being the primary point of care for most people to simply being the entry point to the healthcare system. In today’s healthcare system, primary care physicians see as many patients as possible but end up referring many patients out to specialists, which results in large amounts of time spent filling out paperwork for insurance companies.
Burnt out and overwhelmed by large health system practices, some primary care physicians have found a way out: direct primary care. By transitioning to an independent direct primary care practice, primary care doctors can see fewer patients, enabling them to spend significantly more time with their patients and deliver more holistic care to their patients. When a primary care physician transitions to direct primary care, they are often able to treat up to 90% of outpatient medical care for their patients, creating a more fulfilling experience for the physicians than simply referring patients out to a specialist for their medical care.
2. Enhanced Relationships with Patients:
Because direct primary care physicians see fewer patients, they are able to spend significantly more time with their patients, enabling them to form a personalized relationship with each patient. In the direct primary care model, the average visit length for a patient is 45 minutes compared to a 5-10 minute visit in the standard health system primary care model. This additional time with the patients not only enables doctors to better understand a patient’s medical issues, but it also leaves time for the doctor to learn more about the patient's life, family, and other factors that can impact health. Because of this deeper connection with their patients, direct primary care physicians often report increased job satisfaction.
3. Less Administrative Work Enables Better Work Life Balance:
As a direct primary care physician, doctors are able to reduce their administrative work from multiple hours a night to basically zero. This model enables them to spend more time with their patients and have more time to enjoy the other parts of their lives. Taro Health’s DPC partners often talk about how in the traditional healthcare system, they would spend 2 hours at home every single night filling out paperwork & medical charts to fulfill the administrative work required by other insurance companies.This significantly impacted their relationships with families and friends, as well as their ability to engage with life outside of work. By transitioning to direct primary care, these physicians are able to completely eliminate that administrative burden.
Taro Health has built the first insurance company that will work with direct primary care physicians to keep the administrative work out of health care to enable them to focus on delivering care to patients & enjoying their lives outside of work. Learn more about Taro Health by signing up for updates here.
