Membership Medicine
Direct Vs Concierge Primary Care
At Wise Patient, we offer two ways you can be part of our membership medicine model – Direct Primary Care and Concierge Medicine.
Not sure which one to sign up for?
Direct Primary Care (DPC) is NOT available to Medicare patients, so if you have Medicare, you must choose Concierge Medicine. We break down the costs below, but whether you choose DPC or Concierge Medicine, know that you get the same access to unlimited primary care, expanded access to your primary care physician, and much more.
The quality of your medical care. The average time a primary care physician spends with each patient is debated. Whatever that average is, we blow the doors off it at Wise Patient and will never compromise your health by overbooking our schedules. Additionally, our patients get access to steeply discounted cash-price blood tests and off-site medical imaging we have negotiated on their behalf.
The quality of your lifestyle care. We invest in providing you with a growing list of lifestyle health opportunities at no-extra cost via our voucher program and other community partnerships. As a member of Wise Patient, each year you can access a set of vouchers for free services from one of our community health partners. Currently, those partners are MoveMend, Zum Fitness, Renewtrition, and Katelyn Page Fitness. The value of each set of vouchers measures in the hundreds of dollars and the feedback from our patients on these experiences has been overwhelmingly positive.
The quality of your physicians. To recruit and retain the very best physicians to Wise Patient, we create a doctoring experience that resembles what that physician envisioned when they first entered medical school.
Direct Primary Care is increasingly recognized as the gold standard for primary care.
The Washington state legislature recognizes Direct Primary Care as “an innovative, affordable option which could improve access to medical care, reduce the number of people who now lack such access, and cut down on emergency room use for primary care purposes”.
A large actuarial study found that Direct Primary Care members had fewer ER visits/costs, 25% lower hospital admissions, and lower risk-adjusted claim costs.
The Milliman Consulting Firm now has expanded their recommendation for Direct Primary Care to many small employers and self-insured larger employers.
The Wise Patient Direct Primary Care (DPC) Membership Fee is: $125/month, effective July 1, 2021. The Concierge Medicine (CM) Membership Fee is: $100/month, also effective July 1.
NOTE: Medicare patients MUST choose Concierge Medicine, and as of January 1, 2022, we will no longer offer Concierge Medicine membership for N0n-Medicare patients.
The membership is a flat rate, no down payment, no minimal term, and you can discontinue at any time without penalty.It allows the doctor a smaller more exclusive practice, about one third of a normal practice size. With fewer total patients, a physician can provide more detailed care which should result in healthier happier patients. Membership Medicine is an innovative way to deliver primary care that is catching on across the country.
Washington State Is Fully On Board
Washington State is fully on board with direct primary care. Permanent law RCW 48.150 “Direct Patient-Provider Primary Health Care” can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/kt627jy. It is well written and full of appropriate patient protections. This law emphasizes that DPC practices do not bill insurance for primary care services and that patients may discontinue their membership at any time.