I am thrilled to announce that today Good MD, Rochester’s first direct primary practice, opened its doors to patients. Here’s a peek into the Good MD waiting room:
I treat patients like family.
I started Good MD because I wanted to be able to engage my patients about their health the way I would my friends and family. I want to know my patients as people. I want to understand how their lives affect their health and healthcare choices and build relationships with my patients based on trust and transparency.
I don’t believe you can offer this kind of care when you are constrained by the traditional healthcare model and 15-minute appointment blocks. This is why I built Good MD as a direct primary care practice.
What is direct primary care?
Direct primary care is a new and innovative model for offering affordable healthcare through a direct financial relationship between a doctor and her patients. This model eliminates the need for middlemen: health insurance companies. Direct primary care has become increasingly popular with patients and physicians because both parties see the benefits of this model.
According to the American Academy of the Family Physicians (AAFP), “Direct primary care rewards family physicians for caring for the whole person while reducing the overhead and negative incentives associated with fee-for-service, third-party-payer billing.”
For doctors like me, direct primary care is appealing because it:
Allows me to spend more time with patients,
Lowers my overhead costs,
Makes it easier to collect payment, and
Eliminates my insurance paperwork.
I know, too, that direct primary benefits my patients. The AAFP states that direct primary care offers patients “substantial savings and a greater degree of access to, and time with, physicians.”
This gist of direct primary care is that patients pay a monthly subscription fee to be a part of the practice. This fee covers most or all primary care services. Using this model at Good MD allows me to spend more time with patients and to be compensated for regularly communicating with my patients outside of the clinic when they need medical advice.
I believe the direct primary care model allows me to build better healthcare partnerships with my patients, and I believe it is the future of primary care.
To learn more about how direct primary care works at Good MD, click here.
The price tag shouldn’t be a secret.
In addition to offering high-quality, affordable healthcare at Good MD, I am also committed to price transparency. Knowing if a service is affordable requires knowing what it costs. I believe price tags on healthcare shouldn't be secret, and transparency is one of the building blocks of trust.
My practice uses a monthly membership model, which covers most primary care visits and services. Additionally, I have published the Good MD price list, which details the cost of the additional à la carte services I offer.
Technology connects us.
While I take an old-fashioned approach to cultivating relationships, I also embrace the potential for technology to connect people, including my patients and I.
At Good MD, I aim to make myself available for regular consultations in the office as well as outside of the office using phone calls, text, email, image- and video-sharing. The Good MD membership model covers unlimited office visits but also allows my patients to contact me at their convenience with questions and concerns.
This means if you have a rash, you could come in and have me look at it. Or if it’s easier, you can text me a photo of it and let you know if you need to come in immediately. If you have a question about potential side effects of a medication, you can email me, call me, or text me, and then make an appointment if you need to.
This is how most of us communicate daily in our lives with our friends and family. It’s how we should be able to communicate with our doctors.
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a patient at Good MD, browse the pages of the site by starting here. If you'd like to learn more about me, my tumblr page is here.
