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More doctor's offices are charging membership fees. Is it worth it?
Slate • • health
Key Points:
- Traditional primary care often involves short, rushed visits with doctors managing large patient panels, limiting time for personalized care and thorough symptom analysis.
- Direct primary care (DPC) models charge patients a monthly or annual membership fee, allowing doctors to maintain smaller patient panels and provide longer, more personalized visits without billing insurance.
- DPC practices typically cost $50 to $100 per month and offer more accessible, unhurried care, with some practices providing visits lasting up to two hours, which has been linked to lower physician burnout.
- Although DPC fees cover routine primary care, patients still need insurance for medications and specialist care, making this model potentially expensive as it requires paying both insurance premiums and DPC fees.
- Critics argue that DPC may worsen healthcare inequities by limiting access to those who can afford membership fees, especially amid a projected shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S. by 2036.
