A Low-Cost Short Cut to Primary Health Care

What if doctor's offices were like gym memberships? Pay a monthly fee and come as often as you like: no insurance, no deductible, no paperwork, no bill.

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Direct primary care (DPC), a low-cost alternative to conventional health care, works much like this and is sometimes described as the middle-class version of “concierge” or “boutique” medical practices started in the 1990s to cater to the wealthy.

"If you have a hunger for accessibility, continuity, and familiarity, it [DPC] is very valuable. It is so valuable that people are willing to pay extra to get it," says Kelly Devers, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center.

In addition, DPC providers will soon be allowed to compete within state-based insurance exchanges thanks to a provision included in the 2010 health-care reform legislation, The term “direct practice” was first used in legislation in Washington in 2007 that clarified these practices were not insurance companies under state law—but they do provide basic, preventive medical care.

Some analysts believe, however, that allowing direct-care providers to compete with insurers will dilute DPC's original success—and pose as an even greater challenge to uninsured Americans.

“The problem is that these [providers] lack a lot of the qualities that enable them to be a true insurance product. They have no experience managing risk. They also don't have the ability to reinsure that risk,” says Scott Gottlieb, a practicing physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

DPC remains a niche in the private health-care market, but with a growing number of physicians no longer accepting heath insurance, the approach is attracting more attention. Urban Institute's Devers says direct care is affordable, though not necessarily cheap, and can provide a viable solution for people who find primary care difficult to access.

"When I first heard of these practices, I thought, 'They are charging a pretty low monthly fee,' ” she said. “But when you add it up, $50 a month over 12 months—that's $600 a year.”

John Muney is a physician, and president of AMG Medical Group in New York, a direct-care practice that charges between $79 and $129 a month per patient and also accepts insurance. "By eliminating an insurance company, we offer both lower costs and better care," he says. "Eighty percent of people's medical needs can be met here in our center."

The first boutique medical practice was started in 1996 by Howard Maron and Scott Hall, who offered care to wealthy customers willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month. A year later, Garrison Bliss and Mitchell Karton reformulated the concierge practice and opened Seattle Medical Associates, a monthly-fee practice with a maximum price of $65 per month.

Qliance Medical Group, Bliss' follow-on practice he founded in 2006, currently charges patients between $49 and $89 per month, depending on a patient’s age. The model is part of the long-term solution to affordable health care in America, he says.

"Universal health care may be attainable by combining competitive primary care—purchased by individuals directly from their doctor—and high deductible health insurance to cover catastrophic illness," says Bliss.

Patients at these practices are encouraged to have basic health insurance to pay for specialists and hospital care; otherwise uninsured patients pay out of pocket for care outside the direct practice.

So far, 21 states allow direct care. This model is estimated to serve as many as 100,000 patients, according to the Direct Primary Care Coalition. According to a 2010 American Academy of Family Physicians survey, three percent of respondents practice in a cash-only, direct care, concierge, boutique, or retainer medical practice.

"We have 62 percent fewer emergency room visits in our patient populations, compared to others in our region," says Bliss of Qliance, who claims the business model decreases wait times and reduces the costs of treating patients.

Changes Ahead

Despite that success, the DPC model is in for dramatic change. Come 2014, when most people in the U.S will be required to buy health insurance under the health-care reform law, these DPC providers can participate in state-based "exchanges," in which individuals and small businesses can shop for health care. These exchanges, or marketplaces, are expected to provide coverage choices for tens of millions of uninsured people, as well as some who are now insured and get their coverage from other sources.

Direct primary care medical homes are the only non-insurance-based entities allowed to compete in these exchanges. Under the new law, the federal government will allow insurers to offer coverage on the exchange if they meet the requirements of a Qualified Health Plan, as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).