So we came across yet another article documenting direct care success. It’s practically overwhelming hearing all this good news, especially considering that our grassroots movement is producing practically no published stories of outright failure. Granted, running a business is challenging. And it doesn’t always work out. But, in the case of Dr. Usher, a former Mayo Clinic primary care physician, he left the insurance trap and found plenty of upsides. Dr. Usher is satisfied because he can keep his prices and overhead low and spend more time with patients. “We don’t have to mill them through,” he says. He also believes a retainer-based model, rather than strictly direct pay, might possibly earn his practice a more steady stream of income.
The article includes an interesting caveat, “Usher admits he isn’t yet making what he did at the Mayo Clinic, but hopes that will change in a few years, as his noncompete agreement expires and he eyes a move back to a bigger city.” But even without making as much as he did inside the hospital system, Usher says he has no regrets. He adds that, “Even if it was a break-even deal, just the job satisfaction would make it so worth it. I didn’t realize how burned out I was until I stepped out of that system.”
This got us thinking about direct care and the fact that it takes a leap of faith to ditch the familiarity of the pay-for-service model. That’s why we’re inviting direct care doctors to share their success stories with us. Do you have a powerful story of direct care, insurance-free PCP success? If so, please, please email the details to hello[at]atlas[dot]md. We’d love to get it up here on our blog so other doctors who are on the fence can take the plunge, ditch the paperwork and practice more medicine again.
More Reading
“The Direct Primary Care Model Is Gaining Traction. Is It Right For You? | Medical Economics