Health insurance lets you go to the doctor or the hospital and have some of the costs covered by the insurance company. However, not all people have health insurance. That's where direct primary care comes into play. But, what is direct primary care and what are its benefits?

Direct Primary Care

Direct primary care is medical care where the doctor directly bills the patient for their medical care instead of going through a third party like an insurance company. The way that it works is that you pay the doctor a certain amount of money each month. Usually, that fee is something like $50, but it could be more, depending on where you are located. That monthly fee secures you a place on the doctor's or clinic's service. Even if you don't see the doctor that month, you will still pay that fee. So, what are some of the benefits of using direct primary care?

Longer Appointment Times

One of the benefits of going to direct primary care is that you get to have longer appointment times with the doctor. With insurance, the goal is to get patients in and out as quickly as possible, so you might only see your doctor for 10 minutes. Getting patients in and out as quickly as possible also leads to primary care physicians doubling up on appointments to make sure that they always have someone in the office. On the other hand, since your direct primary care physician is already getting paid through your monthly fee, they are going to be able to spend more time with you at your appointments. That will let your doctor build up a really good relationship with you and be able to track your issues easier. 

No Copays

With insurance, you generally have to pay some kind of copay for your doctor's appointments and treatments. How much that copay is depends on a lot of things, including what kind of policy you hold and what kind of doctor you are seeing. Direct primary care physicians and clinics don't need the copay, so that's not something that you are going to have to deal with. 

It's important to make sure you are doing everything you can to maintain your health. One of the things that you can do is to work with a direct primary care physician or clinic to get the medical treatment you need and keep the insurance company out of it.