Today, I share an article from Forbes online about cutting healthcare costs, https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnsamu… Mr John Samuels, CEO of Wellworth, writes the article sharing some wise tips on reigning in costs. Sounds a lot like direct primary care to me, although he never uses that term. What do you think? Remember, November 1st is National Direct Primary Care Day.
Dr. Purcell is board certified family physician working in Anderson, SC. He received his medical degree from Mercer University in Macon, GA and completed family medicine residency at AnMed Health in Anderson, SC.
After completing his residency, Dr. Purcell worked in a private group practice for 3 years before opening his own cash-only primary care clinic in 2005. As he built his cash-only clinic, he was also working part-time in a local urgent care facility. In 2008, he purchased a dormant medical clinic on the “wrong side of the tracks” and opened an urgent care and primary care clinic. After gaining his freedom from third-party captives, Dr. Purcell and a colleague formed the first direct primary care clinic in Anderson County in 2015. In 2019, he transitioned to full-time direct primary care and sold his urgent care. The direct primary care model has brought about a restoration of a relationship with patients broken by third-party middlemen. Now, he can offer more access and more of his time to patients. Dr. Purcell firmly believes that the direct primary care model is the last hope for health care in America.
Dr. Purcell is an active member of several medical organizations including the DPC Alliance, Free Market Medical Association, and American Academy of Family Physicians. He is the former Chair of the Direct Primary Care Member Interest Group for the AAFP and a founding member of the DPC Alliance and the Carolina’s Free Market Medical Association. He was elected to the Advisory Committee for the DPC Alliance in the Fall of 2018 and completed his term in 2021.
Dr. Purcell is the author of Magic, Pixie Dust, and Miracles: A Guide to Direct Primary Care and Employers which shares how to connect DPC with employers of all sizes. He has spoken about this topic and DPC in general at the DPC Summit, DPC Nuts and Bolts conference, Hint Summit, AAFP FMX, Carolina’s Free Market Medical Association, TedexFurman, and DPC Alliance Mastermind sessions. He continues to speak to residents and student groups about DPC as well.
One thought on “4 Habits to Control Healthcare Costs”
As I’ve said before many times, choose the wrong area to practice DPC and one will FAIL miserably PERIOD. In my area with high Public Aid, the practice would have failed years ago if DPC was adopted! DPC sounds great but choose the wrong geographical area and I guarantee the practice will go bankrupt!
Nobody talks about hospital practice. Does the DPC doc turf to the hospitalists for care when a patient needs to be admitted? If paid a monthly fee only, hospital care could take a big bite out of time and budget.
I suspect DPC is an office only thing and if the patient doesn’t have some insurance, they’re screwed financially if they get admitted. Besides, there is some clueless doc overseeing their care now! I at least admitted the patient and could give a good history to a consultant if I needed them. When I called a tertiary care center for a transfer, the attendings knew me and knew I wouldn’t call with turf bullcrap to dump on them because I was too lazy to deal with the patient. Heck they trained me and I could recognize when the patient needed specialized care and get them over ASAP. I was treated seriously by the consultants. I was told that when I’d meet them at big education meetings in the next major city. If I ran into them, I’d ask (with my outpatient consults) if I gave them enough information? One time a cardiologist’s eyes rolled and he said, “Kurt you give us the best background information ever as you outline everything in your letters you’ve done to workup the patient. Most docs send a consult with chest pain and no other information.” That made me feel good and I kept up my fastidious letters to consultants. I chatted with other specialty docs and they felt the same. They knew I didn’t know everything but I tried to tell them everything I knew about the patient and what I didn’t know. Helped them to hone down on the problem and they appreciated it. They took my patient referrals more seriously to address as I gave them a good database to start from. Always got a dictated letter back or many times they called me on the phone to talk to me about the situation.
As I’ve said before many times, choose the wrong area to practice DPC and one will FAIL miserably PERIOD. In my area with high Public Aid, the practice would have failed years ago if DPC was adopted! DPC sounds great but choose the wrong geographical area and I guarantee the practice will go bankrupt!
Nobody talks about hospital practice. Does the DPC doc turf to the hospitalists for care when a patient needs to be admitted? If paid a monthly fee only, hospital care could take a big bite out of time and budget.
I suspect DPC is an office only thing and if the patient doesn’t have some insurance, they’re screwed financially if they get admitted. Besides, there is some clueless doc overseeing their care now! I at least admitted the patient and could give a good history to a consultant if I needed them. When I called a tertiary care center for a transfer, the attendings knew me and knew I wouldn’t call with turf bullcrap to dump on them because I was too lazy to deal with the patient. Heck they trained me and I could recognize when the patient needed specialized care and get them over ASAP. I was treated seriously by the consultants. I was told that when I’d meet them at big education meetings in the next major city. If I ran into them, I’d ask (with my outpatient consults) if I gave them enough information? One time a cardiologist’s eyes rolled and he said, “Kurt you give us the best background information ever as you outline everything in your letters you’ve done to workup the patient. Most docs send a consult with chest pain and no other information.” That made me feel good and I kept up my fastidious letters to consultants. I chatted with other specialty docs and they felt the same. They knew I didn’t know everything but I tried to tell them everything I knew about the patient and what I didn’t know. Helped them to hone down on the problem and they appreciated it. They took my patient referrals more seriously to address as I gave them a good database to start from. Always got a dictated letter back or many times they called me on the phone to talk to me about the situation.