What is Direct Pay Healthcare?

What is Direct Pay Healthcare?

Direct Pay Healthcare is a healthcare practice model where the patient directly pays the physician or medical practice a very reasonable membership fee, although some practices accept payment for a single visit. These medical practices do not take health insurance and the payment for service is made in office at the time the service is provided. Many patients who use the direct pay healthcare network are also members of healthshares. Healthshares can be helpful for covering the costs of more expensive medical services or emergency medical situations. Click to read more about healthshares.

How do I attain full healthcare coverage using the Direct Pay model?

It is recommended to become a member of a healthshare to obtain full healthcare coverage with access to the direct doctors network. Healthshares are different from health insurance and offer many different membership plans ranging from basic medical coverage to full medical coverage. Click to read more about healthshares.

What is the benefit of DPH for the patient?

Direct Pay Healthcare practices remove the processing of insurance claims. By doing this there are several benefits to the patient.

First, is time. When the doctor’s office does not have to spend unneeded time on processing paperwork for the insurance companies, they earn a great deal of time back. That time can be spent with the patients, rather than patients feeling rushed out the door.

Second, is money. The medical practice does not have to hire staff to process insurance claims, therefore it costs less to operate the medical practice. That savings is passed on to the patient.

Third, is quality. When the medical practice has more time available to evaluate the patient, it can be reasoned that you would see an increase in quality of care, and this is reflected in the Google reviews of these medical practices.

Fourth, is family flexibility.

For older family: Many Direct Primary Care (DPC) doctors offer memberships for people over 65. We are constantly hearing about how Medicare could run out of funds, leaving the baby boomer generation in distress with a feeling of uncertainty. For many people, these are your parents or the people who raised you and paid for your doctors before you were able to. Many in Generation X, Millenials, and Generation Z want to be able to provide healthcare for the people who raised them and this option is possible through Direct Pay Healthcare. You can simply pay for a DPC membership for your parents with a Direct Primary Care provider, who may offer advice to your parent(s) on any specialists they recommend seeing, if any are needed.

A Direct Primary Care membership provides access to healthcare for persons over the age of 65 who want more than Medicare, or fear Medicare’s ability to fund the healthcare needs of the Baby Boomer generation.

Parents with young adults: Direct Primary Care memberships often include membership prices for adults individually, children individually, as well as family packages. Many people worry that their children will not find a job by the cut off age required of the health insurance companies and their children may go without healthcare coverage. This can create fear in the young adult as well as for their parents.

With Direct Primary Care, while your young adult child might not qualify for a children’s membership, there are at current no rules against a parent being able to buy their 28-year-old child who is between jobs an adult DPC membership. At current, there are no rules that you can’t buy your 37-year-old son who was laid off during pandemic conditions a DPC family membership that would offer coverage to him, his wife, and your grandbabies.

For young family: Many Direct Primary Care (DPC) physicians who are board certified in Family Medicine treat patients from infancy. If you are a family looking for healthcare for your infants as well as adults, check with DPC Family Medicine doctors in your area as you can often all go to the same doctor. Board certified Family Medicine doctors receive training in pediatrics. This option allows for your whole family to go to the same doctor or medical practice as well as for that doctor to continue a doctor patient relationship with your child after the age of 18.

For children, you can also see a Direct Pay Pediatrician. While there is much debate on when your child is too old to see a pediatrician, there seems to be some consensus that between the ages of 18-21 years old, the young adult should stop seeing a pediatrician and find a family medicine doctor.

Both the Family Medicine doctor and the Pediatrician are equipped to manage the healthcare of a young child. If you live in a more rural area where there is only access to Family Medicine and Pediatricians are not available, rest assured that Family Medicine doctors are legally allowed to treat children and have had extensive training in pediatric care.

Fifth, is privacy and honesty. Many people are uncomfortable being honest with doctors for fear that their insurance premium will go up if they are honest about how many alcoholic beverages they really have a week or that they have tried to quit, but find themselves smoking cigarettes again. With Direct Primary Care the membership fee is the membership fee regardless of your lifestyle choices, which opens the room up to honesty so that your doctor can give you recommendations to help you with issues you might be struggling with but are afraid to say for fear of that information being reported to insurance companies or government entities. Maybe you’re experiencing a traumatic crisis in your personal life, need mental healthcare, but do not want to see the psychiatrist attached to your work. Human beings are all imperfect, and they all have struggles, and there are moments when patients need privacy within the healthcare system. Direct Pay Healthcare practices allow for the patients’ privacy, and as a result patients have a safe place to be honest about their health.

Sixth, is the national benefit of keeping more medical facilities open. Spending at the local level in healthcare will help the clinics, hospitals, and human resources stay open and functioning in your area. When there is need for medical attention, you want medical staff and beds in your town available. By directly paying the medical facilities in your area, this allows them to restock medications and supplies. When most of your money goes to the insurance companies, this money is spent on, in some cases 340,000 employees, government lobbying, and other spending that does not specifically work for keeping medical aid available in your local communities. Given the times, and the conditions in our healthcare system, spending locally through the Direct Pay Healthcare providers guarantees access to healthcare regardless of the available federal funding to the healthcare system in your community as the federal government tries to stabilize healthcare funds after the immense spending on the Covid-19 pandemic. Spend locally and directly for your healthcare needs to replenish the healthcare facilities, supplies, and human resources in your local communities.

What is the Direct Pay Healthcare Directory and why does it benefit the patients?

The Direct Pay Healthcare Directory provides the patients with Direct Pay Healthcare practices of many specialties throughout the United States of America. This directory is constantly being updated with more healthcare practices and facilities. To use the DPH directory, you search according to your location and find the providers in your local area. The benefit of the directory to the patient is ease of being able to locate a direct pay healthcare professional.

What is the benefit of the Direct Pay Healthcare model for the medical provider?

The benefit of the Direct Pay model for the healthcare professionals is a lower cost of operating. When you no longer have to hire people to process insurance claims, this saves the healthcare business in both time and money. Many physicians have seen situations where they have still not been paid by the insurance company for patient visits that were more than a year prior. By having a Direct Pay model, especially with a monthly membership, the operating funds are in the business every month allowing you to replenish supplies and pay your staff rather than the stress of the insurance payments not being timely. This makes for a facility that is stocked and smoothly operating, decreasing the stress for all those involved. This creates a better atmosphere, which in turn creates a better patient experience. This payment model has the power to keep your doors open.

How do I use the Direct Pay Healthcare Directory?

To use DirectPayHealthcare.org, type your zipcode into the directory map and hit enter. A list of healthcare providers in that area will pull up. Click on the medical practice and you will be brought directly to the providers page so that you can explore the services that practice offers and begin interacting with them to receive the healthcare that you and your family deserve.