I am pretty knowledgeable about the DPC universe. I want to give some advice to those thinking about doing DPC. You need to look at what others are doing before making two big mistakes. They are:
- Charging too much of a monthly rate.
- Taking on too many patients.
There is a reason that most DPC docs have around the same number of patients (600). There is a reason that DPC docs use age-based pricing or family number-based pricing. And there is a reason those prices are similar.
I have seen young DPC docs charging two to three times the average monthly rate and then hear them complain that they don’t have enough patients. Duh. Remember how DPC was supposed to be the affordable option to the fee-for-service system?
I have seen young DPC docs run the numbers in their head and tell me if they just take on 800 patients then they will really rake it in. Yes, and you will go back to what you left in the fee-for-service system: more visits and shorter visits. Congrats, you just broke the DPC model.
I understand that certain locations and demographics change things. That being said, don’t get cocky and let greed take over your calling to do Direct Primary Care. You will make a great living but you don’t need to exclude people by socioeconomic status and you don’t need to turn your practice into a mill where you are running patients through like cattle. We left that world for a reason.
(This was originally published on 8/24/22. We are putting our top five posts back out this week while we are on vacation).