So why DPC? Why would a doctor leave the security of the fee-for-service world, with its hospital-owned practices and cadillac benefits? Or why would a patient choose to enroll in a DPC practice if they have health insurance that “already pays for” primary care. If I can boil it down to one reason, here it is: the doctor/patient relationship. It’s just hard, really impossible, to prioritize that relationship while both doctor and patient are on the treadmill of insurance-based primary care.
On Saturday, a married couple who are business owners signed up for CovenantMD. They emailed us shortly after signing up, and I would like to share with you some of their comments (used with their permission): “Our new rates came in from the Affordable Care Act with a whopping price tag of $23,925/year premium, $9,000/year annual deductible, and a $14,300/year maximum out-of-pocket. That said, if we continue with regular health insurance, we would lose our business."
Yesterday, Healthcare.gov opened for “window shoppers,” those that would like to get a preview of health insurance rates prior to the Exchange opening for purchasing on November 1st. Let's crunch some of these numbers and see how much money we can save if we pair a high deductible plan with CovenantMD.
I was in Harrisburg on Friday morning, presenting the concept of direct primary care to a room full of employers, employer benefits specialists, and other doctors. It was the inaugural conference of the Free Market Medical Association, Pennsylvania Chapter. For many in the audience, it was the first time that they had heard of such a thing as direct primary care. I always love the reactions I get: enthusiasm, relief, and hope for lowering cost on something so foundational as primary care.
CovenantMD officially opens for business today, Monday, January 4. The last nine months, through penning the first words of a business plan, to launching the website in August, to speaking with several families in their homes (and Starbucks!) that wanted to “kick the tires” of CovenantMD…this has been a delightful time. So today we put flesh on the bones of our dreams, as it were.
We caught our first glimpse of storm clouds in October with this article in LNP. Highmark, the health insurer with the largest proportion of plans purchased by Pennsylvanians on healthcare.gov, would be dropping it’s most popular plans for 2016.
On Sunday, November 1st, LNP (the local newspaper of Lancaster, PA) published this article about CovenantMD, and on November 3rd, Fox 43 featured this segment. I think it's fair to say that these caused a local social media sensation. There were many cyber high fives, and some that expressed reservations about the model. In this post, I'll address what was by far the most frequent objection to Direct Primary Care.
