How Much Does DPC Cost for 10 Employees?

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How much does DPC cost for 10 employees? Small businesses struggle to provide health insurance due to high cost. What about DPC as an option? Insurance would be around $ 7,500 per month, compared to full-access DPC at $800 per month for 10 employees. Let’s talk about the numbers and why DPC might be a better benefit.

Take home points:

  • Small local employers (roughly 5–30 people from shops, restaurants, offices, trades) are the main opportunity for employer-based direct primary care (DPC), because traditional insurance is often unaffordable for them.
  • Brand-name individual insurance for small groups is about $700–$800 per employee per month (roughly $750). For 10 employees, full employer payment would be about $7,500 a month; even a 50% employer share is still about $3,000–$4,000 a month.
  • Those plans typically come with a large deductible (example given: about $2,500) that the employee must pay before most benefits apply, so the card is mainly useful for rare, high-cost events (cancer, major surgery, accidents, hospitalizations) are roughly 20% of care.
  • About 80% of care is routine: urgent-care-type problems, checkups, prevention, and chronic conditions (blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, asthma, etc.). That can usually be handled in a DPC clinic, with easier access by text, email, or video and no copays or deductibles.
  • DPC membership for an employee is typically about $70–$90 a month (example used: $80), so 10 employees cost about $800 a month for full primary-care access. Labs and meds are extra but heavily discounted (example: a blood count around $3).
  • Compared with paying thousands per month for an insurance card employees may rarely use because of the deductible, $800 a month for DPC is presented as a more affordable, higher-value benefit for most small employers and their staff.

About Shane Purcell, MD

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.