What is Direct Primary Care?
SproutMD is a Direct Primary Care practice in Kirkwood, Missouri. We are honored to be a part of this innovative model of primary care and to offer this option for patients in the St. Louis area. Direct Primary care (DPC) practices are small practices that allow for personalized care, direct access to your physician, and maintain very low overhead to pass savings directly to patients.
DPC practices reduce overhead in the following ways:
- Minimal staff- Many DPC Physicians run their the office alone, without managers or CEOs or multiple levels of support staff. Some DPC offices have one or two additional staff members.
- Traditional health insurance payments are NOT accepted- this reduces cost by eliminating the need for billing, coding, and collections departments.
- Affordable monthly membership fees are used to cover almost all primary care services that we offer. This eliminates the need for most itemized billing, and eliminates unexpected costs.
- Supplies, equipment, and medications are purchased wholesale allowing many procedures to be performed or medications administered or dispensed in the office at very steep discounts or without additional charges.
The foundation of a DPC practice is to develop a trusting relationship between the patient and physician, making the physician accountable ultimately only to their patients. Eliminating the need to cater to insurance companies and large medical group bureaucracies allows your physician to focus on what is best for YOUR health. Since DPC practices accept significantly fewer patients (usually less than 500 in total as compared to thousands in a traditional practice), your physician can also devote more time and energy to getting to know you and keeping up with your individual healthcare needs. Imagine if you could reach your physician by their personal cell phone, text, or e-mail virtually any time…DPC restores the open communication that is so critical for high quality and safe medical care. Imagine if you could request a house call or arrange for a checkup at your office over your lunch break…DPC allows the flexibility to better meet your needs.
sproutMD offers traditional DPC benefits:
- Price transparency- very few services will require additional fees, but those costs are kept exceedingly low and are plainly listed upfront. You’ll never receive an unexpected bill.
- Reduced cost medications, imaging (x-rays, CT scans, MRIs) and labs. We use our negotiated discounts with local imaging centers and labs for services that cannot be provided in the office. Many of these services may be available at a lower cost than your insurance COPAY for the same service in a traditional office. We do NOT stock or dispense controlled medications at all, and do not routinely prescribe or refill controlled substance medications for long term use. This includes medications for anxiety (like xanax and ativan), ADD/ADHD (like vyvanse, concerta, focalin, daytrana or adderall), narcotic pain meds (like percocet, vicodin, hydrocodone, etc), and insomnia (like ambien, lunesta, restoril, etc).
- In-office procedures including skin biopsies, cryotherapy for warts and pre-cancerous lesions, skin tag removal, diabetic nail trimming, laceration repairs, joint injections, IUD and nexplanon placement, EKGs, spirometry, and more. Many are included with your monthly membership. Any additional fees are essentially only the wholesale price for the medications used or administered for the procedure (numbing medications, etc)
- Unlimited, extended, in-office visits. Standard visits are at least 30 minutes long.
- Unlimited phone, video chat, text or e-mail visits when clinically appropriate.
- Direct access to your personal physician on their cell phone for urgent matters nearly 24 hours a day.
We are excited to be on this journey and to be able to provide patients with excellent care at affordable prices, regardless of insurance status. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have, or to set up a phone or in-person meet-and-greet to determine how this model of care may benefit you and your individual healthcare needs!
Still curious about Direct Primary Care?
Wondering if DPC is right for you and your family?
Check out these links for more information:
Facebook: sproutMD.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/direct-primary-care-a-no-insurance-healthcare-model-2017-3
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-people-with-direct-primary-care-pay-for-prescriptions-2017-3
https://www.aafp.org/practice-management/payment/dpc.html
https://www.aarp.org/health/health-insurance/info-08-2013/direct-primary-care.html
Please contact us if you have more questions or want to find out more about how DPC can improve your healthcare experience. Schedule a free phone or in-person meet-and-greet appointment for more details!
