Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a new movement in the world of healthcare, and if you think like us – it’s a force to be reckoned with! Centering around the idea of patients becoming “members” of a DPC practice, these individuals pay a “retainer” – usually monthly, but it could also be annually or quarterly – to attain the services of this primary care physician.
Then, when the patient visits the doctor’s office, it’s a much different experience than what most are used to. Instead of sitting in a waiting room for an unknown period of time, paying a copay and handing over an insurance card the moment they walk in the door, and then receiving hardly any face time with their doctor, the visit goes in a totally different direction.
At a DPC practice, patients can and should expect to spend an abundance of time with their actual primary care physician, to not be stuck in a waiting room forever, only then to be shuffled into a room to wait even longer, and there will be absolutely no insurance paperwork or copays. As you can see, this is a whole new ball game as far as a doctor’s visit is concerned!
But how is this experience so seamless, you may be asking?
Well – a lot of the reasoning behind that is due to the fact that DCP doctors have more time to dedicate to their patients, helping the practice overall to run more smoothly. In today’s article, we discuss just how doctors are saving time due to DPC.
Lack of paperwork needed
In a normal practice, doctors are held to the standards of insurance companies, which means that they are forced to fill out seemingly endless piles of paperwork about every patient they see.
In fact, a recent Forbes article cites that doctors waste over two-thirds of their time in the office working through paperwork, which is valuable time they could be spending with patients.
In a DPC model, there is no “middle man” insurance company to be dealt with, which immediately eliminates much of the paperwork that most doctors are stuck pushing through on a day-to-day basis.
Less patients
Doctors at DPC practices – most of the time – commit to taking on a lower number of patients than that of a normal practice. This is because these doctors yearn to dedicate an adequate amount of time to each patient, which means that they have more time to spend with each individual that comes into their office.
Higher level of patient familiarity
Another factor that makes DPC doctors more efficient is the fact that they get to know their patients better than doctors standard practices. Because DPC doctors spend more time with their patients and communicate with them more often, they’re more likely to be familiar with the case or health of a patient when they walk through the door.
This helps them to make more concise diagnoses and to work through their appointments more efficiently overall.
There are a range of benefits associated with joining a DPC practice and this may be something you want to consider for you and your family.
