DPC: The Small Business Advantages

Having some form of health care coverage does NOT equal access to the health care system in a timely fashion. Many health systems are short staffed, especially in primary care. Insurance companies use networks to limit which primary care clinicians there members can see. Medicare and Medicaid recipients are capped by health systems due to low reimbursement.

DPC solves the access problem. Your employees have their physician’s phone and email. Clinic appointments are almost always available the same or next day. Telehealth appointments are available to improve access for visits that don’t require an in-person evaluation.

Even if your employee has access, who are they seeing? Increasingly health systems are choosing to utilize physician assistants and nurse practioners that have a fraction of the training and experince of a physician. Mutiple studies show that these midlevels do more testing and refer out to specialists much more than physicians. The result? Lost time and money for both you and your employee.

Pure DPC solves the expertise problem by pairing your employees with a physician.

Receiving care from the same person over and over, for as much of your care as possible, reduces your employees re-telling their history and re-testing what’s already been checked. Health systems, being paid on a fee for service basis, are incentivized to just get you in, and keep you in, their system.

So you have coverage, and you have access, and you have a physician - great! But do you get to see your physician when you need to be seen? Or, do you only get to see your physician for your annual exam because they are booked out for months? Health systems win regardless of whether your employee has continuity because they own the urgent cares and emergency rooms; they get paid whether or not your employee sees their physician. Volume is valued over continuity. Yet those visits are much more expensive than a clinic visit off the bat, and that increase cost is compounded by additional testing from lack of continuity.

DPC solves the continuity problem. Your employees see their doctor.

Since World War II, employees have been trained to expect health care benefits as part of an employment package. But since the “Affordable” Care Act, the price of commercial insurance has skyrocketed while simultaneously increasing the out of pocket expenses of your employees. Those costs make offering commercial insurance financially prohibitive for many small businesses. Yet, this puts small businesses at a disadvantage for recruiting and retaining talented employees. While DPC is not insurance, studies consistently demonstrate that primary care physicians, particularly Family Medicine physicians, can care for >80-90% of what walks through their clinic doors. They also function as a healthcare “quarterback”, coordinating care to reduce cost and expedite care when needed.

The highly relational nature of DPC, coupled with the access, expertise and continuity noted above, makes DPC a valued benefit that helps small businesses recruit and retain employees.

DPC pairs well with cost/health sharing plans and self-funded insurance plans. Both of these catastrophic options recognize the value of DPC and are increasingly encouraging their members, often with significant financial savings, to join a DPC practice.

Timely access prevents small health issues from becoming more serious. Expertise decreases unnecessary testing and referrals. Continuity does the same and saves time. Care coordination by a physician that works for your employee and not for the health system eliminates waste and helps find the best prices. Healthy employees are more productive and happy employees are more likely to stay.

DPC reduces costs by increasing employee productivity, decreasing employee turnover and decreasing actual healthcare related costs.