An article in the Montana Free Press entitled Health care is expanding. Here’s how. came out and Dr. Bergland of Fountainhead Family Medicine got some nice press in the piece. The article was a summary of the new health laws that have been passed in Montana and are now in effect. For the DPC part there was this:
For Todd Bergland, a family physician at Fountainhead Family Med in Whitefish, one new law in particular has given stability to a style of medical practice he embarked on a year and a half ago. Senate Bill 101 sets into state statute a memo issued in December 2017 by Downing’s predecessor, Matt Rosendale, authorizing doctors to negotiate direct payments from their patients. Those “direct primary care” agreements cover an established suite of health care services, and eight clinics in Montana now operate with that model. Under SB 101, as in Rosendale’s memo, they are not considered health insurance and as such are not regulated by the state.
But, wait, there’s more:
“It doesn’t have to be seven-minute visits and it doesn’t have to be insanely overpriced testing and it doesn’t have to be just loads of insurance company paperwork that doesn’t benefit the patient at all,” Bergland said. “There’s a better way to do it.
Feel free to read the whole article as they do a great job explaining DPC. Congratulations Dr. Bergland for being a DPC role model and getting your name out there. As his website says:
IT’S TIME TO REFLECT ON HOW WE PAY FOR HEALTHCARE
His practice website can be found here.