Thu. May 2nd, 2024

I am always scanning the news for articles about Direct Primary Care and so it makes my skin crawl when I see a good title that turns out to be a front for a DINO (DPC In Name Only). When I get click on it and burned, I start singing the lyrics from The Who:

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again

Here is the article from BNN (whatever the hell that is) called Direct Primary Care: A New Dawn for Patient-Centered Healthcare. Here is the subtitle:

Direct primary care is reshaping the healthcare landscape, focusing on patient-centered care, cost-effectiveness, and personalized services. SoNE Health’s recent move towards independence marks a pivotal moment in this shift towards value-based care.

With 550 physicians across independent practices, SoNE Health is at the forefront of the push toward value-based healthcare and population health.

I see nothing on the SoNE Health website about Direct Primary Care. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

If it walks like a DINO, talks like a DINO, and looks like a DINO then it’s a freaking DINO.

We Don’t Get Fooled Again.

(If I am wrong then DM me as this BNN piece just might be the worst article ever written on DPC).

179680cookie-checkIs this Direct Primary Care Story the New Dawn or Just Another DINO?
(Visited 263 times, 1 visits today)

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.

2 thoughts on “Is this Direct Primary Care Story the New Dawn or Just Another DINO?”
  1. Thank you Doug for unearthing this article from “The People’s Network.” This article underscores the necessity for continued vigilance and discernment in the battle for the soul of healthcare.

    Organizations like SoNE Health are masquerading as champions of Direct Primary Care while simultaneously heralding their role in the value-based healthcare and population health movement. This is a stark contradiction to DPC and, frankly, I feel it is a deceit. DPC is one of the foundations of free market healthcare, emphasizing unmediated relationships between patients and providers, transparency, and the sanctity of choice. To claim affinity with both free market healthcare principles and the collectivist ideologies of value-based care and population health is to play both sides against the middle, misleading those who seek and deserve genuine patient-centered care.

    The very essence of free market healthcare is antithetical to the bureaucratized, standardized nature of value-based and population healthcare models. Such models, under the guise of efficiency, erode the individual liberties and personalized care that define free market healthcare. They shepherd us towards a socialized medical system where decisions are made far from the examination room, diluting the quality of care and patient autonomy. I feel this duality presented by SoNE Health is a guise, a dangerous flirtation with socialized medicine under the banner of patient care and innovation.

    We stand at a crossroads, and the choice is clear: will we allow the encroachment of socialized medicine under the guise of progress, or will we stand firm in our commitment to free market principles, patient choice, and the inviolable doctor-patient relationship? Let’s stand firm!

Comment Here and Join the Discussion