“Working for the Patients and Not the Insurance Companies”

A new Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice, Freedom Pediatrics, will be opening in the Metro area on May 1st.

Direct Primary Care is not a new model of healthcare. In fact, there are many high-quality providers in the metro area who operate under this business model, including the beloved Dr. Brooks at Brooks Family Care.

What Makes Direct Primary Care Different?

Direct Primary Care (DPC) differs from a traditional practice in many ways, but the focus is on quality of care over quantity of care.  

They do not bill insurance.  Instead, members pay a monthly or annual fee for easy, direct, and quality access to their doctor.

As Freedom Pediatrics’ website states, “DPC returns medicine to its origins — when the patient-physician relationship was the focus, not what the insurance company dictated.”

With a limited number of patients in the DPC model, most appointments are 30 to 60 minutes long so all questions can be answered thoroughly, and membership levels will dictate the amount of monthly or annual access to the doctor.  

Most DPC providers offer more of a holistic, whole-self, approach to medicine; looking at the root of a problem to find the best way to address the issues.  They also tend to focus more on teaching patients the importance of nutrition, sleep, hydration, exercise, outside time, and stress management in maintaining health or resolving medical issues.  

The American Academy of Family Physicians states, “Ideally, the DPC model is structured to emphasize and prioritize the intrinsic power of the relationship between a patient and his/her family physician to improve health outcomes and lower overall health care costs. The DPC contract fee structure can enable physicians to spend more time with their patients, both in face-to-face visits, and through telephonic or electronic communications mediums should they choose, since they are not bound by insurance reimbursement restrictions. For these reasons, the DPC model is consistent with the American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) advocacy of the advanced primary care functions and a blended payment method of paying family medicine practices.”

Due to limited membership spots available, a DPC will stop accepting new patients once it reaches capacity. This tends to happen fairly quickly with highly-sought-after doctors.

So if this model of healthcare is of interest, you may want to enroll as soon as possible.

Freedom Pediatrics officially opens for enrollment on May 1st, but other practices in Kansas are currently accepting new patients now.