Are you tired of the traditional healthcare model where you wait weeks to months to see your healthcare provider, only to have 15 minutes if you are lucky to address all your healthcare concerns? As a healthcare provider, at the end of the day, I was tired of seeing 15 -17 patients a day and feeling I had not done an excellent job caring for my patients and being wholly burnt out, only to do it again the following day.

I lived on this path for over eight years as a nurse practitioner and was heading for burnout. It was around this time that I heard of Direct Primary Care, also known as DPC. A year later, I took a leap of faith and went out on my own, and Holistic Wellness came to life. We are six years strong and continuing to grow. DPC is such a beautiful model as it allows the healthcare provider to give the type of care patients need and deserve.

DPC is an innovative primary care model where the traditional patient/provider relationship is the foundation for providing care. DPC has proven benefits by providing care that exceeds the standards by offering longer appointments to address all your needs (typically 60 minutes), e-visits, no co-pays, full pricing transparency, access to my personal cell phone and email, discounted labs drawn onsite, plus discounted imaging fees at local facility’s.

So how does this work? People pay a flat, affordable monthly fee covering all visits, including your yearly comprehensive physical exam and additional in-office testing. This model is not an insurance plan, and Holistic Wellness does not accept insurance, which, in my opinion, is the beauty of the model, as the provider works for the patient and not the insurance company. It is, however, still highly encouraged to have insurance (but not needed to join) for those unforeseen, catastrophic events.

If you have insurance, you may continue using it as your plan states at hospitals, pharmacies, other specialty providers, etc. However, some plans, such as an HMO, require you to have an in-network provider for additional services, so please check with your insurance company. If you have a PPO, these do not require an in-network provider, so Holistic Wellness can order services you may need as an out-of-network provider. If you do NOT have insurance, there are medical cost-share plans that work great in conjunction with DPC, and I would be more than happy to speak with you about this.

I believe Direct Primary Care is here to stay and be the new wave of future healthcare.