News
We’ve talked in the past about what direct primary care (DPC) is and why it can be beneficial to employers and individuals as a rapidly growing form of healthcare. We’ve even discussed how offering a DPC model can be your competitive edge in our current job market. But we don’t just believe those things because we are a DPC clinic. Studies corroborate this and we are going to dig into one from the Society of Actuaries, “Direct Primary Care: Evaluating a New Model of Delivery and Financing.”
Study Highlights
The Direct Primary Care Coalition and the American Academy of Family Physicians spent two years in collaboration with Milliman and the Society of Actuaries on a comprehensive evaluation of DPC as a growing health care delivery model. What they found shows how this new and growing DPC model provides an alternative to traditional fee-for-service-based primary care, while improving the patient-doctor relationship, reducing the fragmentation of patient care and increasing both personal and professional satisfaction for primary care physicians.
This important research shines new evidence on how DPC generates system-wide reductions in unnecessary healthcare utilization, such as hospitalizations, emergency department usage, radiology and certain diagnostics, and specialist care, leading to broad healthcare cost savings.
“Primary care physicians are the front line of healthcare. How often a patient accesses primary care, and the quality of that care, can have a significant impact on downstream costs and patient health outcomes.”
Above is a quote from the study, as well as the main focus point here at EBO MD. This study concludes, “while [primary care providers] are almost universally acknowledged as essential to achieving the healthcare Triple Aim of providing high-quality care, at lower cost,” the current primary care crisis is characterized by physician burnout, large patient panels, and low pay for primary care providers relative to other physician specialties, with increased administrative burden and longer work hours.
Virtual Care
According to the study, 99 percent of all DPC practices were doing virtual consults via text or phone as part of their membership two years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced traditional practices to adopt this form of care. The same surveyed DPC practices stated 88 percent of them offered telemedicine benefits as well.
As we’ve learned, having virtual care options only further entices individuals of all demographics to look into your healthcare facility. In fact, according to the study, 60 percent of U.S. households with broadband access are interested in remote care that would take place online or by telephone.
Additional Care
A DPC model can decrease unnecessary healthcare usage that leads to broad-based healthcare cost savings. The study showed this in spades. In fact, DPC members experienced a 53.6 percent reduction in emergency room claims costs, as well as approximately 40 percent fewer emergency room visits in general, compared to those in traditional healthcare plans.
Outside of the emergency room setting, DPC members saw 19.9 percent lower claim costs for employers on an unadjusted basis and 12.6 percent lower claim costs on a risk-adjusted basis during a two-year period. Because the business pays a flat fee per employee per year rather than for all charges generated over the course of the year, that cost is typically lower than the total claims cost would be—making it an attractive benefit to employers.
Affordable Option
In a traditional healthcare practice, providers are paid based on how many people they see. In the DPC model, instead of paying for each visit or procedure, members pay a monthly fee. The national average adult monthly fee is $73.92. Removing out-of-pocket costs means patients are less likely to avoid seeking care due to cost.
EBO MD patients also benefit from substantial savings on negotiated wholesale lab prices for all labs that we must send outside our office, as well as wholesale generic prescriptions and supplements available from our dispensary. These savings translate into more affordable healthcare for you!
—
EBO MD is not insurance coverage. We encourage patients to maintain some level of health insurance to help cover the costs of medical care that they receive from medical providers or facilities outside our practice.
If you have questions about how your existing insurance policy will work with direct primary care, contact your insurance provider.