Posted by: Atlas MD

February 15, 2022

It’s Been a Good Year for Direct Primary Care

As the second year of the pandemic comes to a close, it’s as good a time as any to take stock of 2021 and examine how the direct primary care industry has fared during these strange times. As it turns out, 2021 was a fantastic year for DPC on the whole. Growth was steady as new clinics opened across the country and more patients than ever were able to get access to better, affordable healthcare. Moving into 2022, it’s clear that direct care has never been better, stronger, more innovative, or more in demand.

Pushed to the limit

It’s no secret that doctors were already under immense strain before Covid-19, but since the start of the pandemic, the pressures on the public healthcare system and the medical professionals that staff it have been nothing short of staggering. Not only has this led to lower quality of care across the board, but physicians already suffering from burnout associated with overworking and excessive hospital administration were pushed to their limits as hospitals struggled to cope with an influx of patients and sick medical staff. This resulted in a phenomenon termed the “Great Resignation”, which saw vast numbers of healthcare professionals leaving in droves. In August 2021 alone, more than 534,000 people left the healthcare industry, causing huge disruptive turnover among primary care providers.

Pandemic-proof 

The same can’t be said for direct care. The telehealth capabilities inherent in most DPC practices meant that doctors were able to continue providing safe and effective treatment for their patients throughout the worst of the pandemic. They could keep their doors open while others had to shut, and at the same time operate under comparatively less stress due to working with significantly smaller patient panels and attending to less administrative work than traditional clinics.

Many doctors saw the benefits of this model and steered their ships in that direction, opening up direct care practices across the country even in the midst of mutating variants. While there is no official registry of DPC practices and the available data can sometimes be difficult to parse out, information gathered by DPC mapper and the DPC Alliance demonstrates a steady increase in the number of DPC clinics throughout the country. 

Paving the way forward 

2021 was also a great year for DPC legislation. In South Dakota and Montanna, legislation amending the definition of DPC as “not insurance” was passed, and bill SB374 was enacted allowing healthcare providers in Montana to dispense medications directly to their patients. Bills to pave the way for easier DPC access were also submitted in South Carolina, Texas, Massachusetts, and Maryland.

In demand

The reputation of and demand for DPC has also grown tremendously in the last year, as evidenced by the ever-increasing articles on the subject in well-known publications. A consumer survey by Hint Health also found that 83% of employees in the U.S. would be likely to sign up for direct primary care (DPC) membership if offered by their employer, and a study published in Population Medicine found that in general family medicine physicians were open to the idea of direct care, and felt that “DPC can offer positive outcomes through lower administrative burden for physicians, improved doctor-patient relationships, and better access.”

Conclusion

It’s clear that direct care is heading in the right direction, and industry growth on a physical, legislative, and reputational level experienced in 2021 reflects this. There’s no reason to believe that this momentum can’t be sustained into 2022 and that by moving one foot purposefully in front of the other, DPC can gain a firmer foothold and continue improving healthcare throughout the country.

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 21, 2017

Atlas Welcomes New Docs After InLight Leaves EMR Business.

Transitions are part of life. Some are simple, others are messy. Some are quick, and others take time. Some pose as a welcome change, and others don’t even ask our permission. And still others are a little bit of all that depending on the day.

We know how hard that transition season can be, and we’re poised to help you through your version of it – whatever it might look like. Whether you’re transitioning from a traditional healthcare environment to DPC, transitioning from a one-man-shop to a practice with employees, or transitioning from a one-location practice to a multiple-locations practice, we’re here to help. We offer free practice management consulting to answer even the smallest of your questions about how to do it DPC-Style.

As you’ve probably heard, InLight recently left the EMR business. So if you’re new here, welcome!

If you’ve joined Atlas from InLight, your transition is one of process, and details. That can be difficult on a totally different level! But even though you may be having a hard time getting a hold of files, we’re here to help you through this, too. We’re doing everything we can to help clinics transition smoothly; you’ve got the Atlas community standing behind you now, and we will fight for your success just like we fight for our own.

If you have questions about transitioning to Atlas, we encourage you to reach out to support@atlas.md, or go join our Facebook group. We’ll get your questions answered so you can get back to doing what you do best: helping patients.

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 15, 2017

The Value Proposition You Don’t Value Enough.

Value Proposition for Direct Care PracticesWe talk a lot about value added propositions. Here, here and here for example. As you probably already know, we’re referring to the value you bring to your patients. Your value comes in many shapes and sizes – your flexible schedule and extended appointment times, your ability to open your doors at almost any time, your willingness to answer the phone, email, text, or video call at all hours, not to mention your steadfast devotion to saving your patients money at every turn.

But there’s one piece of value you offer your patients that, whether they say it out loud or not, is actually invaluable to them.

You put the power back in their hands.

It starts at the top. The freedom to opt out of a convoluted healthcare system held together by red tape is liberating in itself, but the benefits just keep coming. Nobody’s telling them what to do. No insurance or third party regulations of which the fine print must be scoured. Your patients do their research, and weigh what Direct Care offers against the alternative. The choice is theirs. They make the decision, and they can feel good about the consequence.

Because after they sign up, they see that the power stays in their hands. Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

September 5, 2017

Go Ahead, Treat Your Patients Slowly.

Treat Patients SlowlyWe humans can’t help but shove as much as possible into one minute. One hour. One day. We’re rewarded for doing it, too. Society says that the more you check off your list, the more productive you are. And by default, then, the more productive you are, the more successful you are. So, we rush. We search for ways to skip steps and still get the same result. We fill downtime with more stuff in the name of said productivity.

We load up our arms with more grocery bags than we can carry because we simply refuse to waste time making two trips.

We pull out our phones at red lights so we can jump on the email that came through five seconds ago. Or check Facebook…

We give patients seven minutes of our time. And we spend four of those thinking about what’s waiting for us in the next exam room.

Where has that gotten us? Actually, it’s making us sick. Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

August 29, 2017

How To Be A Good Businessperson AND Take Your Oath Seriously.

How to be a good businessperson And a good doctor. It’s true. Sometimes doctors struggle with the idea of innovating in the space of business. Some docs used to think you couldn’t do both – you couldn’t be a good businessperson and really take your oath seriously, meaning, care about patients. The foundation of DPC allows you to flip that theory on its head! We take a very bold stance now to say that really embracing and holding true to our oath of “do no harm” must also mean do no financial harm.

We must continually push ourselves to find ways to innovate that bring value to our patients.

For example. Direct Care offers wholesale medications, so most of the time they’re somewhere around 90 – 95% off. It’s literally ten times cheaper to get your medications through Direct Care than Walmart. Take Immitrex for example. (Use GoodRx.com to price check.) Depending on your area, Immitrex is anywhere from $88 to $256 for the generic version. But the wholesale price is $6. And the patient pays $6. Let that sink in! How long did doctors struggle with patients who couldn’t afford their medications only because we complained about the system rather than find a way to fix it ourselves?

As a patient, you don’t have to be rich to like more money, but if you’re struggling financially or working a low-paying job, those savings are even more significant. That’s time back with your family – not to mention a better quality of life. Direct primary care removes all those hurdles.

Traditional healthcare had a culture of either learned helplessness, or groupthink. It has historically lacked a culture of “Innovate, Help and Build” because it always felt that a wall was built by insurance and government. If they didn’t pay for it, then by default we couldn’t do it. And us docs were so busy seeing 30, 40 even 50 people a day that we had no choice but to focus on the task at hand rather than our future ability to practice medicine. Read more

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 18, 2017

What ACA Repeal & Replace Really Means for DPC.

The house voted. The bill passed. The ACA is changing, this we know. Depending on who you ask, this is either a really good thing, or a really bad thing.

This bill would be a tremendous improvement from the current system.  And in its latest form, the bill balances concerns about high costs and limited choice with protections for pre-existing conditions.

The ACA and leading replacement proposals rely on refundable tax credits to help individual market enrollees pay for premiums, although the credit amounts are set quite differently.

Even before the vote, some Republican senators had expressed deep reservations about one of the most important provisions of the House bill, which would roll back the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

It Doesn’t Matter How You Feel.

Okay, that’s a little harsh. It actually does matter how you feel. But even so, let’s put politics aside, yeah? Because those of us in Direct Care need to think about the bigger picture. Which is that very soon, lots of people are going to need what this platform has to offer. They’re going to need transparency like never before. They’ll need a quality relationship with their physician to come up with a plan unique to them…one that can’t be conjured up in seven minutes. They’ll need the flexibility to make healthcare work for their family instead of having to make their family adapt to the rules of healthcare.

Will We Be Ready?

Are our practices ready for them? How can we get more ready? Take the pulse of your community. Talk to them and see how they’re feeling, what their healthcare plans are, what they’re frustrated about. Be the one who helps explain all the things they don’t have time to research and understand themselves. Tell them how the Direct Care model accommodates for the areas traditional healthcare falls short. (Hint: transparency, time, efficiency, flexibility, availability, friendliness, quality…just to name a few) And then maybe. Just maybe you’ll feel comfortable thinking about the possibility of expanding. Hiring a new doc. Opening that second practice.

There are a whole bunch of ways to prepare your practice for a fuller patient panel. If you’re curious about any of them, we’re happy to help. Because your goal is to grow at a pace you’re comfortable with, while maintaining the lifestyle you want, and continuing to provide the quality care you went to med school to master.

 

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 11, 2017

Direct Care Docs Have This. Traditional Docs Don’t.

After writing and rewriting the first sentence to this article about a hundred times, we realized there is no way to sugar coat it.

Direct Care docs have time. Traditional docs don’t.

There, we said it. We feel better. Let’s talk about why time is so valuable, and why us DPC docs love it so very much.

Time is something we all wish we had more of. Are always trying to carve it out. We crave it. 

Think about all the awesomeness time brings to the party. It lets you sink in and do extensive research between patient appointments without being interrupted to jump to the next thing. It lets you listen to your patients and read between the lines of what they’re saying about their lives. Time allows you to transition: to put the thing you just did behind you, so you can be present in the thing you’re about to do.

It’s not just about medicine, though. In fact, time allows you to step away from medicine and live a life outside those four walls. When you’re in charge of your schedule and your patient expectations are well met (time naturally allows you to accomplish this), you can immerse yourself in…whatever you want. You can take your kid to story time at the library at 10 a.m. Go to the car show after lunch. Hit the gym when the rest of the world isn’t there (no more waiting in line for machines!).

We’re ramming the importance of time down your throat for a reason.

Look, we all get the same 24 hours in a day. It is what it is. Rambling on and on about all the wonderful things you can do with time feels a little ridiculous at this point. But even so, it remains to be one of Direct Care’s biggest assets. And one of the recurring things docs in traditional healthcare never seem to have enough of.

Let’s lay out some of the things docs get fed up with over time, yeah?

  • Rushing patients in and out the door. Seven minutes, people. Clearly not enough time.
  • Having that mountain of paperwork looming at the end of the day because there isn’t enough time between appointments to do it properly. Nor can anyone else do it for you…
  • Medicine becomes your entire life; you don’t have time to do the other things you love with the people you love.
  • Having to bend to insurance rules and regulations because it’s how you get paid. And who has time to sit on the phone and argue about technicalities with an insurance rep for three hours? You’re supposed to have seen 25.7 patients in that amount of time…

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Time is important. We want more. DPC offers more.

It’s a simple truth you cannot and should not ignore.

Time is like a freaking breath of fresh air. You forget how good it feels until you’ve taken one. And once you have, you wonder why you didn’t inhale deeply like this before. And you want to keep doing it over and over and over. It brings clarity.

People think Direct Care is too good to be true. We’d be worried if you didn’t think that way, honestly. A lucrative career where you set your own hours and prices. Patients you get to make a real connection with. Money you get to save people on a daily basis. Healthcare you get to make accessible to everyone. A business you get to run on your own terms. Time to do it all really well.

But it is true. It’s a reality so many docs are living out today. We can’t shout it from the rooftop because, well, nobody would hear it, ironic as that is. But we can say it over and over again from this blog in hopes that a doc somewhere who’s fed up with never having enough time is looking for a better way.

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 8, 2017

Practice From a Place of Joy.

If you look back on your time as a healthcare professional, can you pinpoint your most inspired moments? The times when you were on fire? You know, like that time you came up with a super unconventional treatment plan that worked really well. Or when you figured out how to get alternative treatment for a patient who seriously needed help but couldn’t swing it because of insurance restrictions. Or how about that time you listened to the nagging in the back of your mind, “randomly” called your patient to check in and learned they were in the middle of a medical crisis? You really saved the day that time.

Chances are you’ll recognize a common thread in all those moments of greatness. You were practicing from a place of joy. You loved your job. You were personally invested in your patients. You thought about work even when you weren’t at the office – and not in a bad way. You did what you did because it’s what you do and who you are. Your best work, your most thoughtful treatment plans, your most careful attention to detail, and your most inspired methods of communication come when you’re happy. 

What if you’re not practicing from a place of joy?

If you’re not there, if that’s not you, you’re missing out on all the good stuff. Seriously – healthcare is exhausting, challenging and rewarding all in the same five minutes, which makes for one hell of an emotional rollercoaster. But the joy. The joy makes it all worth it. It’s the why behind what you do. Or at least it should be. If it’s not, though, all is not lost so don’t worry. You can get there. There’s a way out. You can make changes in the way you practice medicine that relieve pressure, ease tension, and actually give you something to look forward to. Just ask the traditional family doc who loved seeing patients during the day but absolutely dreaded the mountain of paperwork waiting for him after the last one went home. He transitioned to Direct Care and put all that paper right through the shredder. Or you could ask the PA who was stressed from the very beginning of her morning because her first patient ran late and she knew the rest of the day would continue to spiral out of control. She opened a Direct Care practice and now gets to spend at least 30 minutes with each patient. Thirty. Minutes.

Oh, don’t forget to ask the veteran physician who had no desire to even practice anymore because of all the insurance rules and regulations (not to mention he’s tired of keeping up with billing codes). Instead of retiring, he chose DPC. Now he works when he wants to work, with patients he truly connects with, and deals directly with them instead of a mess of third party interferers.

Strive for joy. You owe it to yourself.

You were called to this profession. You may think you chose healthcare, but the really is that it chose you. You were meant for it, and you have a responsibility to do your very best work. You have an obligation to your patients to show them what genuine, personalized healthcare looks like. So strive for the joy that inspires your greatness. Do what you have to do to give your patients real value. If that means adjusting your hours to make sure you have time for you outside the office, do it. If it means getting into the office early to do extra research on the diagnosis you saw yesterday, do it. If it means reading that novel you’ve convinced yourself you don’t have time for, just do it. When you’re happy and you know it, your patients will, too. (Yeah, go ahead. Clap your hands…)

DPC paves the way for joy.

Let’s pretend you’re in a traditional healthcare environment and you’re feeling…stuck. Frustrated. Irritated. Burnt out. Anything other than joyful. You may not have the flexibility to create joy yourself, but remember that “way out” from earlier? It’s Direct Care. Direct Primary Care is the path to joy. The path to running your practice the way you’ve always wanted to. The paved road leading straight to healthy doctor-patient relationships.

When the surefire way to cut bureaucratic red tape and practice medicine from a place of joy invites you over for dinner, you accept. It’s just that simple. (Psst. DPC is sending you an invitation right now!!!)

So have you recalled the last time you were really, really great at practicing medicine? Maybe it was yesterday and fresh in your mind. Or maybe it was so long ago you barely remember how intense that kind of rush feels. Either way, we hope you crave more of it.

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 5, 2017

How Do You Spend Your Pajama Time?

Pajama time. You’ve heard of it, right? It’s the time most traditional docs spend at home catching up on paperwork from the day. You can just picture it. The rest of the house is asleep, the clock on the bedside table reads some insane hour, and even though all the doc wants to do is snooze after a long day, she’s propped up on a pillow shuffling papers around by nightlight.

DPC docs still have pajama time, but it looks a liiiiitle different. There may be PJ’s involved, but that’s about the end of the list of similarities. Instead of checking off boxes and pouring over paperwork to make sure billing codes are spun the right way and hasty patient scribbles (ahem, notes) are properly transcribed, DPC docs do something else entirely.

They build their business. They schedule Facebook or Twitter posts, write articles for their blog, outline their next marketing campaign strategy. Things that add value to their practice and spread the word about what they have to offer. Or maybe they do some extra research on a treatment plan they’re scheming for an unconventional patient. Or maybe they respond to a text message from a worried mother whose two year old has a rising fever.

We don’t know about you, but if we had to choose, DPC PJ time seems like the waaay better option. Just sayin’.

 

 

 

Posted by: AtlasMD

April 17, 2017

Being a Doc Doesn’t Have to be Lonely!

The Student Doctor Thompson has some thoughts on what it means to be the “Good Doctor.” We’re paraphrasing here, but essentially, the “Good Doctor:”

Puts in the extra time to perfect the trade. They’re always available at a moment’s notice should anyone need their help. They have a good reputation because, well, their life is medicine. Most of my fellow residents look at the Good Doctor and hate his schedule but love his legacy. He works well beyond the age of retirement and has little to no life outside of medicine. The life of a doctor is a lonely one.

Thier friends have moved on… that tends to happen after you’ve neglected them through 4 year of premed, 4 years of med school and then residency. And even if they haven’t moved on, you have nothing left in common with them.

Whoa.

Heart-wrenching, right? But what really got us is what someone posted in the comments:

“The ‘Good Doctor’ sounds like he’d be a terrible husband and father.”

Or “wife and mother” if we’re being totally PC. But that one strikes a chord, doesn’t it? The notion that in order to do your job well as a physician means you gotta sacrifice literally everything else? Yeah, we docs love medicine, but we love other stuff, too. We love cars. We love public speaking. We love books, running, and movies. We love our families. And we don’t want to sacrifice any of those things. Good thing we don’t have to. 

Direct Care docs everywhere watched this video, immediately stood up and hollered at their computer screens: “IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY!” Are we right? Come on, you know we’re right.

Med school is hard. Nobody’s saying otherwise. But you’re not suffering through it just to spend endless hours filling out paperwork as part of a way to leave a legacy. You’re sacrificing now so you can help people. So we encourage you to learn more about Direct Primary Care. DPC provides you a rock solid platform and business model that literally gives you the gift of time. Time with your patients, time for yourself. Before you click off the page because it sounds too good to be true, give DPC its due diligence and read up.

* Check out the DPC Curriculum: https://atlas.md/dpc-curriculum/
* Read more of this blog: https://atlas.md/blog
* Talk to docs around the country who are doing it, and love it. https://www.iamdirectcare.com