Addressing those new to the idea, direct primary care partisans often start to explain the model by comparing it to membership in a fitness club with nearly unlimited access for a fixed monthly fee. I’m puzzled. Gym clubs are subject to high member churn rates. Is this wise for health care? High churn owes inContinue reading “The gym club model. For healthcare?”
Author Archives: Gary Ratner
Direct Primary Care Poster Child Qliance has collapsed.
I had told you that would happen and why. It did, and now 25,000+ people have had less than a month’s notice to make new primary care arrangements. But the whole idea of direct primary care was to have been that these patients chose to pay a subscription fee to Qliance instead of maintaining anContinue reading “Direct Primary Care Poster Child Qliance has collapsed.”
Giant direct primary care pioneer Qliance has turned to online begging.
“No deductibles or copayments, but we have a coin box at the reception desk for your donations.” Qliance, the first corporate provider of insurance-free direct primary care and one of the three largest, seems to be headed down the drain. It has taken to online begging at gofundme.com. Not even ten days before the donationContinue reading “Giant direct primary care pioneer Qliance has turned to online begging.”
Going insurance-free does not, and cannot, reduce the overhead expenses of primary care practices by 60%, or even 40%.
Updated 4/4/21. About 13% of revenue (22% of overhead) according to peer reviewed academic research. I’ve back-tracked Katherine Restrepo’s and Julie Tisdale’s 2016 claim that: By dealing directly with patients and filing no insurance billing whatsoever, DPC practices are able to eliminate 40-60 percent of their overhead expenses. A footnote there takes you to a 2015 KatherineContinue reading “Going insurance-free does not, and cannot, reduce the overhead expenses of primary care practices by 60%, or even 40%.”
Qliance cost reduction table from 2015 press release
Right-click to enlarge.
You get what you pay for.
The board-certified family care physicians in the direct primary care model is critical. The interaction between the patient and the primary care physician is key to the outcomes, lower cost and, believe it or not, the patient experience. Mark Watson, county executive of Union County, North Carolina
The only academic journal studies on point failed to show the efficacy of direct primary care.
Georgia’s conservative fans of direct primary care swoon over PHS, a 1500 member, insurance-free, hospital-based, direct primary care clinic in Altoona, Pennsylvania. PHS was the subject of not just one, but two quantitatively detailed academic journal articles addressing the efficacy of direct primary care. Since the oft-cited British Medical Journal study on the efficiency of direct primaryContinue reading “The only academic journal studies on point failed to show the efficacy of direct primary care.”
There never was a British Medical Journal study of Qliance.
The most heavily relied-on “study”purporting to prove the effectiveness of direct primary care is an important marker in a national debate with real consequences. But it is not a study at all. In certain quarters, anything that appears on the sacred webpages of a Heritage Foundation report is taken as gospel truth. So, when HeritageContinue reading “There never was a British Medical Journal study of Qliance.”
Direct primary care is no excuse for parsimony.
I am currently trying to get the following published as a newspaper op-ed. AJC has a version like this one. In a December 16, 2016 column, “Trump’s win opens the door for Medicaid alternative in Georgia”, the AJC’s Kyle Wingfield promoted a Georgia Public Policy Foundation plan for Georgia’s 565,000 uninsured adults. Legislation partially pavingContinue reading “Direct primary care is no excuse for parsimony.”
Did direct primary care save Union County $1,280,000? Don’t bet on it. [Updated 1/6/18. Re-updated 1/13/20]
See 2020 update below. A 4+ – year age gap between two health care enrollee pools explains a lot. DPC advocates find their poster child. A group of self-declared “fighters for health care freedom”, such as North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation and its Director of Health Policy, Katherine Restrepo, have been heavily promoting a healthContinue reading “Did direct primary care save Union County $1,280,000? Don’t bet on it. [Updated 1/6/18. Re-updated 1/13/20]”
DPC Referee 