The DPC Difference
What if...
Your wait time, including check-in was under 10 minutes?
Your phone calls were returned the day you made them?
You had clear pricing for most of your medications at the time they were prescribed?
You had a pretty good idea of how much all of your non-emergency, non-specialty medical care was going to cost you next year?
You could see your doctor and not worry about surprise bills four to six months down the road?
You could portal message, virtual visit with your doctor, and send photos related to questions to your doctor?
Learn more
Healthcare Access Made Simple
Highly personalized health care is the norm at Emerald Health Direct Primary Care & Aesthetics. Dr. Rachel Kelly and Dr. Anne Gonzalez, our Board Certified Internist and Family Medicine/Geriatrician, only care for less than 400 patients together– that is 7 times less than the national average! We can reserve enough time to thoroughly address your concerns at our relaxed, extended visits. Besides in-office visits, we can do phone visits, virtual video visits, e-mail, and we even text! We want to partner with you to achieve your best health.
What is DPC, anyway?
Would you insure the gas in your car?
Direct Primary Care (DPC) is based on the idea that better care can be delivered much more affordably by separating primary care from traditional fee-for-service insurance.
Dr. Garrison Bliss and Dr. Josh Umbehr, pioneers of the DPC movement, use the analogy of car insurance to explain DPC. Imagine if we insured our car the way we insure ourselves...
If you pay for coverage of the big expenses (like collisions), that will keep your premiums lower. The little and variable expenses –gas, car washes, oil changes, tire rotations —we pay for out of our own pocket. To apply these charges to insurance would cost so much that it wouldn’t be possible to have a car in the first place! We maintain the ability to plan and negotiate by paying out of our own pocket. If gas or oil changes are too high at our usual place, we go to the location with competitive pricing. There is an incentive for businesses to keep their costs low.
If you apply this idea to your health care: oil changes, tire rotations, car washes are like primary care and collisions are like hospital care. You need insurance for the big things—the collisions. These are unplanned catastrophes that are costly and can damage an expensive asset (like our car or ourselves). Gas, oil changes, etc… these are like primary care. These are not expensive. Immunizations, routine labs, pap smears, counseling about chronic illness… you are better off negotiating for these services outside of insurance. When you do, you can plan and save time and money.
