Question Time: More on Direct Primary Care

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Direct Primary Care offers quality healthcare that's accessible, personalized, and often more affordable than traditional medical practices. Justin Futrell shares insights on this alternative healthcare model and answers common questions from listeners about how it works and why it's gaining popularity.

• DPC physicians prioritize patient care over paperwork, creating flexible solutions like Justin's experience getting a throat swab between appointments
• Most DPC providers have networks of specialists who also offer reasonable cash prices for patients
• Cash pay prices can be significantly lower than insurance rates – Justin's example showed a $2,200 MRI through insurance versus $450 cash pay
• DPC providers can prescribe medications in most states, with some even providing limited pharmacy services included in membership fees
• Employers should consider embedding DPC into their health plans to improve employee benefits and potentially reduce healthcare costs

Your company should definitely be thinking about embedding direct primary care into your employer-sponsored health plan. If you liked the episode, please subscribe and give a five-star review.

Music by Alex Lambert.

Contact Justin via text 740-525-5259 or via email [e-mail]

I welcome the opportunity to hear your feedback from this episode!

Thanks again to my musically gifted friend Alex Lambert for the music. Also thanks to Kevin Asehan for the edits.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another Tuesday morning with Justin.
I'm Justin Futrell, benefitAdvisor at True North Companies,
and today we're going to dosome Q&A on direct primary care.
Why?
Because we got some greatquestions from listeners over
this last week so I brought outthe board again.
If you're watching on YouTube,if not, that's okay.

(00:20):
We talked about quality care andaccessibility a lot in the last
video and I, a listener, asked,in addition to good care and
accessibility, like why dopeople like it?
What's an example?
So here's an example um, therewas a time two years ago where
my throat hurt like heck and Itried the, the natural remedies,
the over the counters anddidn't work.

(00:41):
And and my direct primary caresaid hey, I'm slammed tomorrow,
but come in um whenever you canand I'll, I'll swab you in
between appointments.
And I thought that's great.
I didn't want to sit in theoffice anyway and that's what we
did and it just sped up theprocess for everyone.

(01:01):
Right, it's what I needed thatday.
They didn't have time, but theyfigured out a way to at least
get the swab done.
So that feeds into quality careand accessible.
But it's a tangible example.
Now another question what if youneed a specialist?
So if you think about whydirect primary care started and

(01:28):
we mentioned this in the lastvideo it's because all of these
doctors, all these nurses, thesephysicians were tired of
dealing with our healthcaresystem.
As you can appreciate, that's alot of the big conglomerate,
health systems and insurancecompanies dictating how much
time you can spend with a client.
So, as you can imagine, peoplewho are in this direct primary

(01:54):
care world are well connected.
There's a really good chancethat your direct primary care
partner would refer you tosomeone else, like this
dermatologist in this example,who is also good about providing

(02:15):
a reasonable cash price.
That's the bottom line Directprimary care.
They want to take care of you.
That's what they want.
So they're going to beconnected to other people who
want to take care of you.
That's what they want.
So they're going to beconnected to other people who
want to take care of you as well.
And so, regardless of whetheryou're completely uninsured
which hopefully you're not, butthat is the case for millions of
people in the US or if you justhave a really high deductible,

(02:36):
it might make sense to pay cash.
For example, I had theopportunity to get an MRI and I
asked how much would it cost tobill through my insurance.
And they said, hey, it lookslike it'd be $2,200 to bill
through insurance.
And I thought, hmm, that's alot.
What would it be if I didn'thave insurance?

(02:59):
And she said, well, you justtold me you did.
I said, but, hypothetically,what if I didn't?
What would the cash pay pricebe?
And she said, well, you justtold me you did.
I said, but, hypothetically,what if I didn't?
What would the cash pay pricebe?
And she said, well, let me look.
It looks like the cash payprice is $450.
So $2,200 through insurance,which I would have to pay
entirely because I had to hit mydeductible, or $450.

(03:23):
Because I hadn't hit mydeductible or $450.
Yes, there is the chance thatif I go cash pay and I do end up
needing surgery or somethingelse down the road, yeah, I
wouldn't get credit for that$450.
But I'd rather pay $450 becauseI don't know if I need anything
or not.
That's why I'm getting the MRIand that's what I did and
thankfully I didn't need asurgery and so I was able to

(03:45):
save what is that?
Almost two thousand dollars inthat example just by paying cash
bottom line if you need aspecialist, your direct primary
care will most likely refer youto someone who's going to give
you a reasonable cash pay price.
Last, last question Can theyprescribe medications?

(04:07):
Yes, the majority of directprimary care businesses are able
to prescribe medications.
It does vary a little bit stateto state as some states have
different give differentauthorities to physicians at
different levels.
So that would be a whole notherepisode.
But the bottom line is yes, themajority of direct primary care

(04:28):
they will prescribe medicationsand some even provide either
drugs on site, like think of alimited pharmacy or the ability
to get free drugs packagedwithin their subscription of

(04:50):
that membership fee.
We talked about A couple ofthings to think about.
Your company should definitelybe thinking about embedding
direct primary care into youremployer-sponsored health plan,
that's for sure.
Again, if you liked the episode, please subscribe and give a
five-star review.
Have a great week.