Plum Health DPC Mentioned in Business Insider

This week, I was delighted to see Plum Health DPC mentioned in two different publications. The first was an excellent, comprehensive piece on Direct Primary Care in Business Insider by Lydia Ramsey.

Ms. Ramsey and I have spoken over the phone about the Direct Primary Care movement, and she asked several insightful questions about our practice in Detroit, Michigan. She has spoken with roughly 16 other DPC doctors and synthesized a great summary of the movement in her article.

I loved the chart she used to compare and contrast traditional Fee-For-Service medicine with Direct Primary Care services:

Next up, we were mentioned in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel article on Direct Primary Care written by Ron Hurtibise. The article discusses Direct Primary Care and the efforts in the Florida Legislature to make DPC 'legal' in that state. 

Fortunately, in Michigan, Direct Primary Care has been 'legalized' via the efforts of State Senator Patrick Colbeck and his Senate Bill No. 1033. I have placed legal and legalized in quotations above because practicing Direct Primary Care or retainer-based medicine is not illegal, but having laws on the books like Senate Bill No. 1033 in Michigan and the proposed HB 37 in Florida removes any potential legal challenges and allows doctors who want to practice DPC medicine a clear path.

And we need more doctors having a clear path to the type of medical practice that they can enjoy and sustain for the long term. We need more doctors practicing primary care medicine. One of the arguments against DPC is that the panel size is smaller in the typical DPC practice as compared to the traditional Fee-for-Service practice. In the Sun-Sentinel article, a part of my LinkedIn article was quoted:

"As to the charge that Direct Primary Care contributes to the shortage of primary care doctors, Paul Thomas, a doctor with Plum Health DPC, wrote in an essay published on LinkedIn.com last year that the model might actually encourage more medical students to become primary care doctors, rather than pursue higher-paying specialty fields.

"A Direct Primary Care practice with 500 members can provide a primary care provider with more income than some earn with 3,500 patients at a fee-for-service practice, Thomas wrote. And the increased time for personal interaction eliminates “role strain” and allows the provider to address patients as whole people, he said.

I believe that Direct Primary Care practices provide physicians and patients with a better primary care experience, and will allow doctors to practice for longer periods of time without retiring early or leaving the field completely because of burnout. I'm happy to see the DPC movement spreading across the country, and I'm happy to be quoted in these two publications.

Thanks for reading!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC