If I get really sick, will my fees go up?
Prospective patients at Direct Doctors often say, “this is too good to be true.” They rave about how we offer unlimited patient visits, give out our cell phones, and never make anyone wait. Many patients feel the fee is nominal compared to the access and service they receive. But patients often wonder, “If I get really sick, will my fees go up?” This is an easy one – No. Nope. No way. Never. Read the rest...
Won't I end up spending more money out of pocket?
Often patients who are considering a membership at a Direct Primary Care practice, (like here at Direct Doctors) assume that in order to benefit from the unlimited access and direct relationship with their physician, they must also fork out a lot more money. Fortunately, that is not true. Whereas, concierge practices charge higher fees and still bill copays and insurance, Direct Primary Care doctors do none of the above. In fact, a number of our patients save substantial amounts of money every year as Direct Doctors’ patients. Read the rest...
How Can My FSA or HSA Dollars Be Used for the monthly fee?
The IRS has currently decided (after a recent appeal by DPCs across the country) that HSA's cannot be used under IRS code to pay your monthly subscription fee to a practice. If you are a current patient using an HSA please contact Dr. Hedde or Dr. Turshen to discuss this further. FSA's may be used depending on the employer's FSA criteria so check directly with your employer or plan administrator. There is a bill in the house of representatives and senate working toward officially allowing HSAs to be used for the subscription fee - this will hopefully pass by 2016 so keep your eyes out!
What do you mean you don't Take Insurance?
By not accepting insurance, we can practice like the old days! We keep our panel of patients low to guarantee the highest level of access to your doctor. You will never be charged a co-pay for our visits and you can be seen whenever you need.
Think of this like car insurance. You have insurance to pay for big things that come up, like accidents and major repairs. Imagine if we tried to have car insurance to cover everything - windshield wipers, brake lights, tires, and oil changes - the predictable maintenance. It would end up costing everyone a whole lot more and causing some people not to be able to afford any insurance at all. This system makes no sense. What we imagine is healthcare costing a lot less for every individual and insurance applying to the "major repairs" - hospitalizations, emergency services, surgery, and specialist care. When people have direct access to primary care at a predictable cost, they use it and overall healthcare costs and individual costs are reduced substantially.
Think of this like car insurance. You have insurance to pay for big things that come up, like accidents and major repairs. Imagine if we tried to have car insurance to cover everything - windshield wipers, brake lights, tires, and oil changes - the predictable maintenance. It would end up costing everyone a whole lot more and causing some people not to be able to afford any insurance at all. This system makes no sense. What we imagine is healthcare costing a lot less for every individual and insurance applying to the "major repairs" - hospitalizations, emergency services, surgery, and specialist care. When people have direct access to primary care at a predictable cost, they use it and overall healthcare costs and individual costs are reduced substantially.
What Does Insurance do to primary care?
Have you ever stopped to wonder - Why do you wait in your doctor’s waiting room for an hour? Why does your doctor rush you through your visit or tell you to come back again if you want to discuss more than three problems? Why, when you call the office, does your doctor’s staff seem to be putting up a stonewall preventing you from communicating with your doctor when you want to? At Direct Doctors, we don’t do any of those things. The reason why we don’t have to is all in the way health insurance affects primary care. Read the rest...
So should I still have health insurance?
Absolutely. We are not providing you with health insurance. Everyone should have insurance to cover catastrophies and other expenses.
How Do I pick a health insurance plan?
It’s that time of year again! No I’m not referring to pumpkins, leaves changing color, cool weather or football. It’s time to renew or change your health insurance plan. Now that you have become a patient of ours or soon plan to be and are taking advantage of all that Direct Primary Care offers it can make choosing your new plan from the state, government, employer or direct from the vendor more confusing than before. There are often many choices, with slight differences that are difficult to decipher. Beyond that, because price transparency is such an issue in healthcare, it is often hard to plan or budget for future costs when there is no way to find out how much these services actually cost! Below, I’ve tried to outline a couple tips while going through this process. (Of course if you would like to sit down with us and go over this we would be happy to oblige). Read the rest...
I already have health insurance, so why would I pay for this?
As a direct primary care doctor, I get this question all the time. The most common question patients, or skeptics, pose is why they would pay twice for health care. The first thing to point out is that health insurance does not equal health care. The two are not synonymous. Having health insurance does not guarantee you access to health care, and certainly does not give you access to quality health care. It simply provides an avenue to have costs for specific services “covered.” As for the pay twice question, everyone already pays twice for health insurance. Read the rest...
