Direct Primary care

Direct Primary Care Meridian Idaho

DIRECT PRIMARY CARE IN MERIDIAN, ID

  • WHY PRIMARY CARE?

    Primary care is called PRIMARY for a reason: we specialize in caring for common conditions that people face throughout their lifetime, regardless of which organ system in your body is involved. This allows us to cover 95+% of your health care needs. When unique procedures or outside input is required, we gratefully reach out to our colleagues; however, we use referrals judiciously to limit your expenses and promote your safety. When too many specialists are involved in a case, communication errors occur and the result too often is waste, disorganization and overload; even on the Food Network, no one invites 5 specialty chefs into the kitchen at different times to all independently add ingredients to the same meal. Yuck!

    Learn More
  • WHAT IS DIRECT PRIMARY CARE?

    Simply, the patient pays the doctor directly for comprehensive primary care, without giving a huge portion of each dollar spent to insurance companies who have yet to make a diagnosis or write your prescriptions [but do manage to consume hours of our time each week haggling over prior authorizations and denials – time which could be spent caring for you!]

    You can avoid the “insurance bureaucracy tax”.

    Learn More
  • IS DIRECT PRIMARY CARE AFFORDABLE?

    For an individual, $90 / month will provide unlimited primary care – all usual services we have to offer within our four walls. $90
    is cheaper than your typical cable or phone bill. The individual prices drop for additional family members (1st adult: $90/month, 2nd adult: $70/month, Children: $50/month per kid). Can you hear me now?

    Compare that to traditional insurance which now costs an average family $16,000 / year with workers paying on average $4,565
    toward that cost, not counting co-pays and deductibles.

    Learn More
  • DIRECT PRIMARY CARE INCLUDES WHAT SERVICES?

    All usual services within our clinic walls are covered, including EKG, steroid injections, chronic disease management, DOT physicals, email and phone service to name a few. (See our services page for a full list). For services outside our clinic space, you will need to cover the cost. For example, the cost of inserting an IUD is covered, but buying the IUD device from the local medical supplier (at our wholesale professional discount rate) is charged to the patient. We do not charge for minor supplies like sutures, liquid nitrogen, steroid injection solution, EKG paper, or in-clinic labs (pregnancy, rapid strep, or A1c). We do have to charge for large ticket items like the IUD, immunizations and external services such as processing pap smears, outside labs and imaging services like x-ray, CT and MRI.

    Direct primary care Contract
  • LABS

    We will do your lab draws at the clinic to save you time and money, then send the labs out for evaluation at an independent, certified
    lab group – MUCH cheaper than going to a hospital based laboratory. Results will be available promptly on the patient portal.
    For our direct primary care patients, we have negotiated “professional courtesy rates” lower even than typical cash rates; this
    means the clinic will pay the lab very reduced rates on your behalf and you can reimburse us at time of service.

  • DOES DIRECT PRIMARY CARE KEEP ME HEALTHY AND SAVE MONEY?

    Yes. A British Medical Journal study of Qliance, another direct primary care group practice found that Qliance’s patients experienced “35% fewer hospitalizations, 65% fewer emergency department visits, 66% fewer specialist visits, and 82% fewer surgeries than
    similar populations.”

    Learn More
  • HOW OFTEN CAN I COME IN FOR MY MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP FEE?

    As often you need. No kidding. (However…since potential legal issues require we place a limit on our desire to serve you, let’s say you max out at 99 visits per month).

    Remember, sometimes the phone or email will actually save you time and accomplish what you need; either way we will help you.

     

  • IF DIRECT PRIMARY CARE IS SO GREAT, WHY DOES THE CLINIC TAKE NON-DIRECT CARE PATIENTS WITH TRADITIONAL INSURANCE?

    One of the primary motivations for starting the clinic was to provide medical services for patients with mental health needs and developmental disabilities. Since such patients are typically tied in with traditional insurance payers, especially government funded sources, it was necessary for us to set up our business as a hybrid which takes both direct primary care patients and insured patients.

    Learn More
  • AS A MEDICARE PATIENT, CAN I SIGN UP FOR DIRECT PRIMARY CARE?

    No. Federal laws do not allow this.

  • IS DIRECT PRIMARY CARE AN APPROVED CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM UNDER THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT?

    Good news:Yes, when combined with a wrap around policy, DPC will allow you to avoid the income tax penalty for not having traditional employer based health coverage. In 2017 and later years, the tax penalty is:

    2.5% of your total household adjusted gross income, OR
    $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, to a maximum of $2,085, whichever is higher!

    Bad News: While Washington, Oregon and Utah all have wrap around plans (catastrophic only health insurance) which cost substantially less than contemporary fully loaded policies, Idaho does not. No insurance company in Idaho has been willing to offer catastrophic plans. In our opinion, this means DPC in the near term will be most financially appealing to Idahoans without exchange style insurance policies but still needing medical care.

    Learn More
  • WHAT ARE HEALTH CARE SHARING MINISTRIES?

    Health care sharing satisifies the Affordable Care Act requirement that individuals puchase insurance or pay the tax penalty. More than 400,000 people across all 50 states participate in the cost sharing arrangements among people of similar Christian beliefs. They are NOT insurance, do NOT receive govt funding and are NOT for profit organizations. They have been in existence for at least 50 years, and were grandfathered into Obamacare.

    Learn More
    IRS Approval Letters

  • ADDITIONAL READINGS ON DIRECT PRIMARY CARE

    http://www.jabfm.org/content/28/6/793.full

    http://www.kiplinger.com/article/retirement/T037-C000-S004-pay-flat-fees-to-doctors-with-direct-primary-care.html

    http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/business-insider/article66149887.html

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/09/19/concierge-medicine-for-all-direct-primary-care-is-the-solution-for-our-health-care-system/

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/12/skip-the-insurer-get-bett_n_834080.html

    http://www.amednews.com/article/20110801/government/308019949/4/

    http://time.com/3643841/medicine-gets-personal/

    https://directprimarycarejournal.com/2016/11/21/nextera-co-press-release-double-digit-reduction-in-costs-leads-to-company-wide-dpc-implementation-for-2017-2/

    https://amp.businessinsider.com/direct-primary-care-a-no-insurance-healthcare-model-2017-3

What Our Patients Are Saying:

read more testimonials

New Patients

Call us Today At:(208) 914-6868

-Or Send Us An Email-

Existing Patients

Please Use Our Patient Portal:
patient portal

OR CALL:(208) 895-0050

Our Meridian Doctor, Clinic & Staff are Highly Rated on The Following Sites:

See More Patient Testimonials