Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Two massive physician surveys (over 500,000) were sent out recently and this is what they found:

As of August 2020, according to two surveys, approximately 14.5% of independent physician practices had either temporarily or permanently closed and roughly 7% of the remaining independent physicians anticipated the closure of their practices before the fall of 2021. 

Wow. That’s a whopping 21.5% by this fall!

Well, what about membership based practices?

Results for membership-based practices (e.g. concierge and direct primary care) within the cohort included:

  • 0% closure rate
  • 24% reported higher revenues in 2020 than any prior year
  • 40% reported that their revenue had not been impacted by the pandemic

In contrast, 76% of the insurance-based practices in the cohort suffered losses in revenue, and only 5% were able to achieve growth in 2020.

Here is a quote from the article:

“The performance of membership practices in 2020 speaks shines a light on something that is well understood by these physicians,” said Blue. “The structure of the financial relationship sets the stage for the larger relationship between the practice and the patient. Fee-for-service is transactional. Membership implies a continuous, active relationship.”

To be fair, this article written in Medical Economics was biased by the person writing it because he is the CEO of a big concierge chain. That being said, it is still pretty impressive that DPC docs made it through the pandemic with flying colors. This is what I have been hearing all along inside the DPC community as well.

9500cookie-checkClosure Rate for Membership Practices During the Pandemic? Zero.
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

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