I hope that the Direct Primary Care alliance does a lot more PR work in the future. They need to be the voice piece that all journalists go to when speaking or discussing Direct Primary Care. We don’t need the idiots at the American Medical Association or the AAFP to give their opinions because they don’t understand or even care what we do.

Take this article, for example. It’s called how concierge medicine creates better outcomes and it’s full of mistakes. They try to describe the difference between concierge medicine and Direct Primary Care, and get it wrong. Check this out:

How Concierge Medicine and Direct Primary Care Differ

Direct primary care (DPC) is like concierge medicine in the sense that practices charge a flat fee to patients and offer members greater access to in-person and virtual care. However, there are two key differences.

One is that, as the name implies, DPC is solely for primary care, while concierge medicine may also cover specialty care. This tends to make DPC less expensive than concierge medicine but also less comprehensive in the services it can offer.

The other is that DPC practices don’t accept insurance, while the American Academy of Private Physicians estimates that 75 percent of concierge medicine practices do. (Generally, concierge practices that don’t accept insurance tend to charge higher membership fees, according to AARP.)

For patients, insurance covers care that’s not included in the membership fee. For practices, insurance reimbursement provides an additional revenue stream; Jorgensen says MDVIP gets about 20 percent of revenue from insurance, which is roughly an even mix of Medicare and commercial plans.

The author doesn’t get a lot right here. Concierge medicine does not cover specialty care. Yes, DPC also doesn’t cover specialty care, but we make deals with specialists to save our patients money. There is also the phenomenon of direct specialty care which DPC helped motivate.

Their second point is ridiculous. Of course, we don’t accept insurance. That’s a good thing. For concierge care, they accept insurance so they can double dip and bill patients yearly for a lot of freaking money as well as building insurance.

This author has no clue what he’s talking about. The biggest difference, other than the insurance part noted above, is that DPC charges a reasonable and affordable rate. That’s the key. Concierge medicine doesn’t do anything more than we do but charges up to 10 times the amount of money.

For more information on the difference between Concierge Medicine and Direct Primary Care, look at this article we put out here. Please bookmark it and save it. Whenever you see some stupid journalist making the mistake of confusing us with concierge medicine or not understanding the differences please forward him or her this link.