Family First Direct Primary Care

12/05/2021

The saddest thing that I keep hearing is that medicine is a dying profession. Is this true?

The fact is that many physicians are unhappy in their jobs. Medical students and young doctors know this, and enter the profession anyway.

But not all physicians are disillusioned with medicine. And sometimes hearing different perspectives is enough to change the narrative.

Corporate medical jobs focus on speed and volume, which often lead to burnout.

Little by little, physicians are opening independent practices and direct primary care practices, where they have control and ownership of their work again. This allows for more time with patients, less paperwork and more joy.

Of course it’s not as simple as 1-2-3 but my point is simply that IT’S POSSIBLE.

11/01/2021

Three years ago I had no idea what branding was. But when I left the traditional medical system to open an independent practice, I had to learn about it on the fly. After all, I was new to my community and I was introducing a different type of practice model called direct primary care. Believe it or not, I opened my practice in 2018 with exactly ONE patient! But I knew from the outset that I needed a great website, and that’s what led me to Alex . I’m excited to share how she integrated my vision for my medical practice into my website and taught me all about branding. Join us LIVE Saturday, November 6th at 3:00 CST!

09/17/2021

I’m so excited to be part of this upcoming event for doctors who are interested in opening direct primary care practices. Email me if you are interested: aleeagupta@familyfirstdpc.com

Are you ready for the next DPC Alliance Mastermind weekend??

We have an amazing line up with Dr. Clodagh Ryan of Cara Direct Care, Dr. Aleea Gupta of Family Family First Direct Primary Care, and Dr. Joel Schumacher of Schumacher Family Medicine.

DPCA MASTERMIND LA GRANGE IL, OCT 1-2, 2021

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

FRIDAY OCTOBER 1ST:
2.00-2.30pm Introduction to Mastermind at Cara Direct Care
2.30-5.00pm OFFICE TOURS
2.30-3.30pm: Transitioned DPC: Dr Clodagh Ryan, Cara Direct Care, La Grange
3.45-4.45pm: Micropractice: Dr Aleea Gupta, Family First Direct Primary Care
4.45-6.00pm: Break
6.00-8.00pm: Dinner

SATURDAY OCTOBER 2ND:
8.00-8.30am: Breakfast and networking
8.30-8.50am: “Setting up a rural DPC clinic” Dr Joel Schumacher
9.00-9.50am: “DPC for employers - marketing, onboarding, and management” Dr Joel Schumacher
10.00-10.50am: “Build your DPC practice to fit your life” Dr Clodagh Ryan
11.00-11.50am: “Social Marketing: Instagram for DPC docs” Dr Aleea Gupta

12.00-1.00pm: LUNCH

1.00-1.45pm “LLC vs S Corp? All things for legal for DPC” Stephanie Posey, JD
2.00-2.45pm: “Why patients choose DPC ” Panel of current DPC patients
3.00-3.45pm: “A week in the life of a DPC doc - compare and contrast” Drs Ryan, Gupta & Schumacher
4.00-4.45pm: Break out groups:
Micropractice/Building from zero patients (Dr Gupta)
Practice finance and staff management (Dr Schumacher)
Attendee choice (Dr Ryan)

Register today at dpcalliance.org/masterminds

08/19/2019

I’m happy to be back in the office after vacation! Hope you have a great Monday 😊

07/22/2019

Today was the day of “nothing is quite what it seems.” I had patients scheduled to see me to follow-up on certain problems, but they all ended up having something different going on. My first patient was coming in for a skin biopsy but had severe anxiety triggered by life events. So we postponed the procedure, sat down and came up with a plan to help with her anxiety. Another patient came in to discuss family planning but showed me a rash that was getting worse. It was very unusual in appearance and will need to be biopsied next week. This is one aspect of family medicine that I enjoy: it’s unpredictable. It never gets boring.
The easier illnesses that I manage give my brain a rest between the more complicated ones. One thing family physicians learn in residency is not to jump to the easiest explanation for a condition. Over the years I have trained my mind to look for the worst and rule that out first. We are also taught to “know what you know, know what you don’t know.” This means that I have a working knowledge of common conditions that I see all the time and that I have investigated in the past. But when I come across something new or puzzling, I break out my books, research it on my medical sites, or call a specialist for help. Today those topics were: an unusual nail condition, latent tuberculosis and elevated calcium levels. Now that I’m a direct primary care physician, it’s easier to go digging for answers to what’s going on with my patients. Having fewer patients and more time to spend with them makes me love what I do even more. Tagging some of my medical -comment below on how you figure out what’s going on with complicated patients.

07/10/2019

What in the world is “on boarding”? It’s a term that I use to describe what goes on when someone joins my practice. Usually I start with a phone call, to get a sense of what the person needs in terms of medical care. After that, I schedule an initial visit in my office. Sometimes we do this right away, because the person has a medical issue that needs to be evaluated quickly. Other times we schedule the visit at a later date, based on the person’s convenience and schedule. Either way, the on boarding process involves getting to know my new patient as they are at THIS MOMENT in time. I request records from the patient’s former doctors and go through these with a fine tooth comb. This is something that I struggled with in prior jobs because there was never enough time to really learn about my patients. But it’s important. Sometimes when I review records I catch things that weren’t followed up on or that need evaluation. Regardless, I come away with a sense of what I need to do to help the person become healthier.
On boarding takes a LOT of time. But it’s the right thing to do. And it goes hand in hand with the direct care model. I like thinking of my patients as a whole, considering the entire person, not just thinking of them piece by piece when they have appointments in my office. It makes sense that this will lead to a lovely doctor-patient relationship.
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07/02/2019

“You can get with this, or you can get with that . . . “ - Blacksheep. Bear with me because this will blow your mind. Here are two examples of what happened in my practice today:
1️⃣A patient WITH health
insurance could have paid $1000 for her MRI (USING insurance) or $300 as a cash-pay patient. She chose to pay cash, and got it done in 2 days, instead of 2 weeks.
2️⃣A patient WITHOUT health insurance was prescribed Pylera by a specialist for a bacterial infection. Price at local pharmacy: $900. Price when ordered through my wholesale pharmacy: $100. Plus the medication will be dispensed at my office (no waiting in line at the pharmacy).
How is this possible? In a nutshell, health insurance has become very expensive and often doesn’t cover very much. You have to be really savvy to figure out what you will pay if you use your insurance. Many times you can’t find out ahead of time. And after you use it, the bills can be a lot higher than you expect, especially if you have a high deductible plan.
If you don’t have health insurance then going to a traditional doctor’s office will cost quite a bit. Every visit will cost at least $100-200, if not more. Doctors are not allowed to discount their prices below a certain point or they can be accused of fraud. Labs and medications will be billed at the retail price, and sometimes cost hundreds of dollars.
So what’s a person to do? Consider joining a direct primary care (DPC) practice. You can join whether or not you have health insurance. For a low monthly fee, you get unlimited visits, longer appointments and direct access to your doctor by phone/text/video chat. You also get extremely discounted pricing for labs, medications and imaging. It’s a new option for healthcare that puts the doctor and patient FIRST, and cuts out the middleman.
Figuring out what your healthcare plan covers or what to do if you’re a self-pay patient is confusing. Most people don’t know that there’s a better option. Comment below or DM me if I can help explain it all to you.

06/19/2019

Are you DPCing yet? Let me explain . . .

I am a DPC doctor, which means I have a direct primary care (DPC) practice. I opened it last year to offer a different type of healthcare to my community. Here are the features that make DPC practices different from other primary care practices:

You can join a DPC practice whether or not you have insurance.
There is low monthly fee which covers all medical services (like a gym membership).
There are no copays or hidden fees (transparent pricing).
Members get discounts on labs, medications and imaging - which usually end up being less than what they pay if they used their insurance.
Members can reach their doctor directly through email/text/Skype/phone.
Appointments are 30-60 minutes long and usually available the same day or the following day.

Becoming a DPC doctor has changed my life and made me love practicing medicine again. I’m trying to spread the word in our community to those who need personal, compassionate medical care. Thanks for starting this campaign.

05/17/2019

Have you heard about the SURPRISE medical bills that people are receiving all over the country? Usually patients know very little about how much their medical services will cost and what percentage will be covered by their insurance. Their charges often end up being much higher than expected. In addition to causing confusion and frustration, medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US. I opened my direct primary care practice because I wanted to move away from surprise medical bills. In direct care practices, TRANSPARENT pricing is a key factor. The cost of medical services is a flat monthly rate that includes all doctor’s visits. Labs and medications are available at discount/wholesale prices, which are shared with patients from the outset. There are no surprises and medical care is reasonably and affordably priced. In addition, people get better care when they can reach their physician directly by phone, email or text. The only problem with direct primary care is that most people don’t know it exists. Direct care practices are growing around the country and can be located through the mapper on www.dpcfrontier.com. Feel free to message me/contact me directly with any questions (link in bio). Tagging several of my fellow DPC physicians. Let’s say NO to surprise medical bills.
bills

05/01/2019

There are many things that doctors don’t learn in medical school. One of them is what people have to pay to become our patients. The price of healthcare right now is exorbitant. For many, it costs too much to buy good medical coverage and it costs too much to pay for doctors’ visits out of pocket. So people don’t go to the doctor until they are really sick. This is the exact opposite of how medical care should be delivered. And it goes against everything I WAS taught in medical school.
I saw a new patient recently who hadn’t been to a doctor in years. She had been afraid to come in because she thought the bills would be really high. Her deductible is $10,000. I explained to her that as a member of my practice, the costs of labs, medications and and imaging are wholesale prices, and that all her medical services are included in her membership fee. When she realized that her bills were going to be a fraction of what she expected, the relief on her face brought tears to my eyes. With that out of the way, we were able to tackle the truly important stuff: looking after her chronic illnesses and getting her preventive health up to date.

04/29/2019

Today I took care of all of my patients virtually. I had phone visits, Skype visits and several text conversations. One of the things I love the most about my electronic health record is that texts get saved directly in the patients’ chart. This means that I don’t have type anything more about those conversations, which saves me lots of charting time. The weather was terrible today and no one had to drive to me in the rain or take a day off work. Of course if someone had needed to be examined, I would have brought them into my office. But sometimes it’s nice to take advantage of technology to make life easier.

04/24/2019

Thank you so much to my dear patient Jessica for this wonderful review!