Paul Thomas MD of Plum Health DPC is a Build Institute Graduate

This week, we were featured by the Build Institute as a notable alumnus - we started growing our business via the Build Institute and related Detroit small business ecosystem. There are so many resources in Detroit and beyond for budding entrepreneurs, and Build Institute is among the best of the bunch.

Three Excellent Family Physicians in Detroit Michigan Accepting New Patients

Detroit Primary Care Doctors Accepting New Patients

Paul Thomas MD, Raquel Orlich DO, and Leslie Rabaut DO are family medicine doctors accepting new patients in Detroit, Michigan. Their practice is called Plum Health and they see patients using a membership model for health care. Patients pay a low monthly fee to be a part of Plum Health, and with that membership, receive excellent primary care services.

Patients can come into the office whenever they want to be seen - we guarantee a same-day or next-day appointment for our Plum Health members. We also offer easy communication, with phone calls, text message, and email access to the doctors.

To see what all the buzz is about, you can enroll yourself, your family, or your small business into the Plum Health service via this link.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

The Doctors at Plum Health DPC are Raquel Orlich DO, Paul Thomas MD, and Leslie Rabaut DO. They are all board certified family medicine physicians and they are all accepting new patients.

Connect with Dr. Paul Thomas on LinkedIn

If you’d like to connect with Dr. Paul Thomas on LinkedIn, follow this link:

Dr. Leslie Rabaut of Plum Health DPC is also an Artist

Dr. Leslie Rabaut, Physician and Artist

Some doctors have a creative streak and Dr. Leslie Rabaut has a fantastic talent for painting. She has been engaging in art and the fine arts since a young age, and she recently entered a painting competition via the Grosse Pointe News. Here’s her entry:

Artwork by Dr. Leslie Rabaut, entitled “Entranced by the Michigan Woods”

When asked about her broad color palette in her works, she says “My paintings are an expression of how beautiful nature can be if we are truly looking.” The art work is on display at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial at this time, from May 6th to June 3rd, 2 pm to 6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

From her Facebook page:

Hey guys..so funny thing but I somehow found my way into the Grosse Pointe News art contest.

If you are a subscriber to the Grosse Pointe News, please show some love and throw me a vote! Apparently you can also sign up for a 1 week subscription and vote (how deep is our friendship? lol)

Vote online at :

www.grossepointenews.com/art/vote

Voting ends online This Saturday May 15th!

Dr. Leslie Rabaut is a Family Medicine Doctor in Detroit Michigan

Leslie Rabaut, DO, is a board certified family medicine physician in Detroit. She practices high quality care that is individualized to each patient. Her interests include functional medicine, preventative medicine, and integrative therapies that work with a patient’s natural physiology to encourage healing. She enjoys working with patients on lifestyle factors that impact health and disease, such as stress, sleep, physical activity, nutrition, and social relationships. She believes in working together with patients as a team to help them achieve their personal health goals. Dr. Rabaut is fluent in Spanish and English.

Dr. Leslie Rabaut is a board certified family medicine doctor in Detroit, Michigan. She works in Corktown at Plum Health DPC.

Thanks for reading and have a great day,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Coronavirus Vaccines in Pregnancy

The Coronavirus Vaccines are Safe and Effective in Pregnancy

First, I want to say that the coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective in pregnancy. There’s a great research article from the New England Journal of Medicine followed over 35,000 pregnant women and revealed the following, “Preliminary findings did not show obvious safety signals among pregnant persons who received mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.”

In this video, I talk with a mom who was in the process of deciding whether or not to get the coronavirus vaccine, but ultimately decided to get vaccinated. We talk about the pros and cons of the vaccine, the difference between the Johnson and Johnson Vaccine and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the risk of getting a fever during pregnancy after getting the coronavirus vaccine, and many other topics.

The Vaccine Confers Immunity to Your Growing Baby

If you’re a pregnant mother and you receive the coronavirus vaccine, your body will produce antibodies and those antibodies will go from your body, to your placenta, to the baby’s body and protect the baby from Coronavirus. You will also share antibodies with your baby after birth via breast milk.

From the Harvard Gazette:

In the largest study of its kind to date, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard have found the new mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to be highly effective in producing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in pregnant and lactating women. The study also demonstrated the vaccines confer protective immunity to newborns through breast milk and the placenta.

Coronavirus Vaccine and Fever in Pregnancy

Getting the coronavirus vaccine during pregnancy may cause a fever, however, this is not very likely and the fever after vaccination is of short duration and unlikely to cause any damage to the growing baby or fetus. From Harvard Health:

One possible side effect of the COVID-19 vaccines is fever a day or two after vaccination. This occurred in about

• 1% to 3% of people after the first dose of mRNA vaccine

• 15% to 17% after the second dose of mRNA vaccine

• 9% after the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

These fevers are generally low and can be managed with acetaminophen, which is safe to take during pregnancy. Rarely, high, prolonged fevers in pregnancy may lead to birth defects.

Thanks for reading and have a great day,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Why Have a Membership with Plum Health DPC

Why Have a Membership with Plum Health DPC?

Plum Health DPC is a relatively new business - we’ve been operating for the last 4.5 years - so we understand that people have questions about Plum Health and direct primary care in general. A lot of people ask us why they should sign up for this different kind of health care model.

Our patients choose our service at Plum Health for several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons why people trust us with their health care is because of reachability and communication. In short, we respond to our patients right away when they reach out to us via text, phone calls, or emails.

When you’re a member of Plum Health, you have timely, clear, and consistent communication with your doctor.

We recently reached 90 + five star reviews on Google for our business, and we analyzed the data. Three main categories of responses stood out: Reachability & Communication, Cost, and Wait Times. While affordable healthcare is a trend during this decade, the results show that 'Reachability & Communication' is the most appreciated benefit for our patients.

A staggering 72% of the reviews left by our patients included a comment in this Reachability & Communication category. Affordable pricing is our 2nd highest rated benefit in the practice according to our patients.

More than 40% of our patients included affordable pricing in their review of our clinic. Another 32% of those reviews included positive remarks about wait times.

While these are the most frequently mentioned benefits of a Plum Health DPC membership in terms of our google reviews, there are several other reasons to join! Find out more, here.

Thanks for reading and have a great day,

- Dr. Paul Thomas MD with Plum Health DPC

Plum Health DPC Lowers the Cost of Prescription Drugs via Channel 7 Action News

Plum Health DPC Lowers the Cost of Prescriptions Drugs in Detroit and Beyond

This evening we were featured on Channel 7 Action news for lowering the cost of medications in Detroit. We started Plum Health DPC in 2016 with a mission: to make health care more affordable and accessible in Detroit and beyond. One part of that broader mission is to lower the cost of medications for our patients.

Paul Thomas MD of Plum Health on Channel 7 Action News

Paul Thomas MD of Plum Health DPC is on Channel 7 Action News with Jennifer Ann Wilson, discussing how we lower the cost of medications in Detroit and beyond.

We buy the most common medications at wholesale and sell them to our patients directly - without a mark up. That’s why our service is called Plum Health DPC, the DPC stands for Direct Primary Care - we deliver primary care services directly to our patients.

By delivering care directly to our patients, we remove the profit takers, pharmacy benefit managers, and retail pharmacies between you and your medications, effectively lowering the cost of those prescriptions by 50% to 90%. Here’s the cost of our seven most commonly used medications:

• Metformin 500 mg 1.2 cents/pill or $0.36 for a 1 month supply

• Ibuprofen 600 mg 7 cents/pill or $2.10 for a 1 month supply

• Lisinopril 10 mg 2.3 cents/pill or $0.66 for a 1 month supply

• Amlodipine 5 mg 1.1 cents/pill or $0.33 for a 1 month supply

• Sertraline/Zoloft 50 mg 4.8 cents/pill or $1.44 for a 1 month supply

• Cetirizine/Zyrtec 10 mg 5.2 cents/pill or $1.52 for a 1 month supply

• Loratadine/Claritin 10 mg 3.4 cents/pill or $1.02 for a 1 month supply

We do this work because we know that the cost of medications continues to climb and that people in our community need a fair shake when it comes to getting the medications that they need to stay healthy.

Here’s what Detroit’s Channel 7 Action News (WXYZ Detroit) had to say:

Dr. Paul Thomas started Plum Health Direct Primary Care four years ago in Detroit with a mission.

"We believe that medication should be affordable and accessible," Dr. Thomas said.

His membership-based business model eliminates the pharmacy and prescription benefit managers by getting medications directly from the wholesalers then selling it to his patients at cost.

Here’s the full interview from Channel 7 Action News:

Thanks for reading and watching, and have a wonderful day,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC in Detroit, Michigan

Paul Thomas MD of Plum Health DPC on Channel 7 Action News

Dr. Paul Thomas on Channel 7 Action News discusses how Plum Health DPC lowers the cost of medications for patients in Detroit and beyond.

Reaching out to Young People with the Coronavirus Vaccine

How to Reach Young People with the Coronavirus Vaccine

Presently, young adults have a wait-and-see mentality when it comes to the coronavirus vaccination. According to Kaiser Health News, young adults, ages 18-29, were most likely to be in this “wait and see” group, at 25% of respondents.

One young adult trying to change this wait-and-see attitude among her peers is Christina Zerka, an undergraduate/pre-medical student at the University of Michigan.

She started a campaign called Save Summer 2021, through which she advocates for vaccine acceptance among young people, with the goal of returning to fun and engaging public events, like concerts, once herd immunity is reached.

The Save Summer 2021 campaign can be found on Instagram, YouTube, and their own website.

In this interview, we talk about the Save Summer 2021 campaign and how we can make sure that all groups within our country have access to the best information around coronavirus and the vaccine.

Thanks for reading and have a great day,

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Coronavirus and Misleading Headlines for April 7th 2021

I've been reading too many misleading headlines in the Detroit Media landscape recently and I'm frustrated by this misinformation.

Media companies can present information in certain ways, and the way that this information is presented makes a difference for public perceptions, especially around coronavirus vaccine efficacy.

The headline I'm talking about is this one that I saw circulated on several news media outlets: "246 fully vaccinated Michiganders got COVID-19 between January and March, state reports"

This information is true, but it misleads the public into thinking that the coronavirus vaccines are not safe and effective.

The media organizations neglected the greater context in their initial reporting, failing to state clearly that 1,700,000 Michigan residents have been vaccinated and only 246 of those have become ill with Covid-19.

If I were to re-write this headline, it would say: "99.99% of vaccine recipients in Michigan have not become ill with Covid-19"

This speaks clearly to the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

Additionally, some media outlets also reported that 3 fully vaccinated Michiganders have died after being fully vaccinated.

This is true, but again misleading.

When taken in the greater context of 1,700,000 (or 1.7 million) fully vaccinated Michiganders, that means that only 0.00017% of those fully vaccinated Michiganders have died from coronavirus.

That means that 99.9999% of those who have achieved full vaccination have NOT died from the coronavirus.

Further, these media organizations did not fully discuss the cases and left out pertinent details.

I would like to know, and these media outlets should report:

• - How old were the people who got sick?

• - Did these people have pre-existing conditions?

• - Were these people taking medications that would suppress an immune response, like steroids or drugs for auto-immune conditions?

• - Did these patients have HIV/AIDS or another condition that suppresses normal immune functioning?

• - Did these patients die from COVID or were their deaths due to another cause, such as heart attacks, strokes, etc…?

My biggest fear is that people who are opposed to vaccinations will use these misleading headlines as "evidence" that the vaccines don't work, when, in fact, these vaccines are safe and effective.

Thanks for reading, and reach out to your City or County health department to get the vaccine.

If you live in the City of Detroit:

• - Call: 313-230-0505

• - Monday-Friday from 9 am until 6 pm.

• - Any resident of the City of Detroit who is age 16+.

• - Any person who works in the City of Detroit whose job requires them to work from their job site.

• - There will be no cost to individuals for the COVID-19 vaccination.

Thanks again,

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Coronavirus Update for Detroit on April 5th, 2021

The house is on fire.

Michigan reported 8,413 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the state's total pandemic case count to 692,206.

There were 8,413 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday - we’re getting close to that big spike that we had around the holidays in November and December of 2020, and that’s not good news.

16,218 Michigan residents have died over the last 13 months from the Coronavirus.

Just because you're "over it" doesn't mean that Coronavirus will magically disappear.

We're all tired - we all want this to be over with.

But now is not the time for recklessness.

Be safe, be smart, mask up, keep your distance, and get the vaccine as soon as you can.

On the bright side, 31% of Michigan residents have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and 19% are fully vaccinated.

I was on Daily Detroit with Jer Staes talking about Coronavirus and why cases are skyrocketing here in Metro Detroit.

Listen here: http://www.dailydetroit.com/2021/03/30/the-house-is-on-fire-with-coronavirus-in-metro-detroit/

Or listen here:

Thanks for reading and have a great week. - Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Throwback to March 2018: Paul Thomas MD on IT in the D

Unfortunately, David Phillips, long-time Detroit podcaster, has passed away. To honor his memory, and to highlight his humor and magnetism, here’s our interview with Bob Waltenspiel, David Phillips, Jer Staes, and Randy Walker. As a warning, there is some adult humor and language in this episode, so if you want to jump to a cleaner portion of the interview, skip to time 31:00:

Why Direct primary care is appealing for Patients

During the episode, the host Gary Bredow interviews a few of our patients. He talks with Will Langford and he talks about being seen by his doctors, and understood by his doctors. Will says that “I believe that Plum Health is the future of medicine.” He goes on to say that, “for people who’ve never experienced direct primary care - it’s worth it. If you’ve ever felt that a doctor didn’t see you, or didn’t hear you, or didn’t believe you, anybody who’s just wanted help, and they haven’t gotten it from people who were supposed to help, try direct primary care.”

Will “The Poet” Langford discusses why he’s a part of Plum Health DPC with Gary Bredow, the host of the Start Up show on PBS.

Why Direct primary care is appealing for Doctors

During the episode at about the 10 minute mark, Gary Bredow sits down with Dr. Raquel Orlich and asks “what do you find attractive or appealing about this model versus the traditional model?” Dr. Orlich discusses the importance of talking with patients and getting to know them, and the ease of communication via in-person appointments, text messages, and emails. She also discusses the importance of having enough time to work through all of the factors that are affecting her patients’ health, and this can lead to patients feeling heard and being able to get to the root of their health care problems.

Raquel Orlich, DO of Plum Health DPC during the filming of Start Up with Gary Bredow on PBS. Plum Health DPC is a direct primary care practice in Detroit and Farmington Hills that delivers affordable and accessible health care services.

Dr. Jamie Qualls is working with Plum Health out of our Farmington Hills, Michigan location and she joined our practice because she can “go out and be the doctor I really wanted to be.” She goes on to say that this direct primary care model is growing rapidly not only across the country, but locally, and patients are loving the experience of being a part of Plum Health and a part of direct primary care practices in general. The direct relationship between doctors and patients is really appealing to patients in our practice.

Dr. Jamie Qualls, DO, MPH of Plum Health DPC talks with the host Gary Bredow about why the direct primary care model works for both patients and doctors.

“Maybe the direct primary care model is the future.”

There were so many memorable moments from this episode, but perhaps the most powerful sentiment was communicated in the closing remarks of the host of the show, Gary Bredow. He said:

“After speaking with several of his patients, his model is working. Throughout our conversation, I couldn’t help but wonder why a common-sense approach to health care seemed so foreign to me. Dealing with insurance companies is all that many of us have ever known. Waiting on hold for hours at a time trying to speak with someone and trying to decode confusing bills has always been synonymous with healthcare for me. I just assumed that it’s a part of the wellness process.

“But this is something entirely different. Individuals pay an affordable monthly rate for the service, the doctor gets to spend more time with patients, which possibly leads to better preventative care and you don’t have to wonder what your next visit is going to cost, or have to deal with co-pays, deductibles, or out of pocket expenses. To me, the health care system is not working for everyone equally with millions of people uninsured or underinsured. Maybe the direct primary care model is the future. Either way, it’s nice to know that there’s options available.”

We agree - direct primary care is the future, or at least a part of it. While direct primary care will never replace catastrophic insurance or some form of insurance coverage that serves as a financial tool to prevent bankruptcy, insurance can never give to patients what direct primary care gives to patients - a straightforward and trusting relationship between doctors and their patients.

How to Sign Up

If you want this type of care for yourself or your loved ones, your business or your family, you can enroll here.

Thanks for reading and watching this segment, and we are happy to help you in your journey to better health!

-Drs. Paul Thomas, MD, Raquel Orlich, DO, Jamie Qualls, DO, MPH, and Leslie Rabaut, DO

Paul Thomas, MD of Plum Health DPC during the filming of Start Up with Gary Bredow on PBS. Plum Health DPC is a direct primary care practice in Detroit and Farmington Hills that delivers affordable and accessible health care services.