Direct primary care is a model of primary care in which physicians charge patients a monthly or annual retainer fee in exchange for providing greatly enhanced access to and coordination of medical care.
Direct primary care offers the same personalized healthcare, access to physicians, actionable advice, and wellness training as concierge medicine, but at a fraction of the cost.
It’s concierge medicine for everyone.
Concierge medicine began as a movement in the mid-1990s in California as a way to offer high net-worth individuals and their families enhanced access to high quality primary care. The fees range between $375 and $2,000 per patient per month, with some high-end practices charging up to $4,200 per patient per month ($50,000 per patient per year). Concierge practices also continue to bill insurance for individual visits.
As in direct primary care, concierge medicine physicians take care of far fewer patients than in traditional fee-for-service medicine—sometimes no more than 50. (In contrast, primary care physicians practicing in the traditional fee-for-service model usually care for 2,500 to 4,000 patients, seeing 20 to 22 of them per day.)
An good way to think about the difference between direct primary care and concierge medicine is that concierge medicine was designed to serve the wealthy while direct primary care was designed to serve everyone else, including employers.
In other words…
| Feature | Direct Primary Care | Concierge Medicine |
|---|---|---|
| Personalized Care | Yes | Yes |
| Extended Time for Appointments | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7 Access to Doctor | Yes | Yes |
| Access via Telephone and Text | Yes | Yes |
| Preventative Care | Yes | Yes |
| Lifelong Wellness Plans | Yes | Yes |
| High Costs | No | Yes |
You deserve the benefits of concierge care at an affordable cost. Health shouldn’t be dependent on wealth. Lifetime wellness should be affordable for everyone.
With direct primary care at ImagineMD, it is. Connect with us today to learn more.
