Dave Chase published an excellent post recently on Forbes.com, claiming that DPC is the Rorschach test for insurance providers. He insisted that in the interest of business, insurance providers should provide wrap-around plans, and encourage people to enter into the insurance-free market, because it would save time and money collectively. Now he’s written a follow-up post that goes into more detail about current DPC perspectives. Give this post your full attention as it provides a 360°-view of DPC in context with low-income people utilizing Medicare and Medicaid, unions, self-insured employers, Cigna (the first major carrier to partner with DPC providers), and more.
Within the article, Chase lists two key byproducts of a DPC practice:
- A very large percentage of common medical issues can be handled in a DPC practice especially when they have no financial incentive to refer patients out since they aren’t subject to productivity objectives driven by the fee-for-service model.
- As outlined in the DPC and the Healthcare Delivery System section, they dramatically drive down utilization of the most expensive facets of healthcare (hospitalizations, ER visits, surgeries and specialist visits).
We like to express these tenets in simpler terms, but it’s nice to see an authority publish work that backs up our experience practicing direct care. In addition to comprehensive insight, Chase’s post included a teaser for a big announcement. See his note below:
“Subsequent to the publication of this report, I learned of a soon-to-be-announced major development in support of DPC. That is, a national insurance player is going to aggressively promote a DPC ‘wraparound’ policy. It should be announced this Summer.”
We’ll be on the lookout for this big announcement. Direct care has made sense to us for years now. But with wrap-around policies made widely available, primary care will make more sense than ever. We’re excited to learn more about these developments.