Family Physicians, Patients Embrace Direct Primary Care
AAFP Recognizes Benefits, Creates DPC Policy
(Left to right) Michael Palomino, M.D., who joined Atlas MD on May 6, pauses for a moment with colleagues Doug Nunamaker, M.D., and Josh Umbehr, M.D.
May 14, 2013 04:30 pm Sheri Porter– Around 10 a.m. one recent morning, Atlas MD, a family medicine practice in Wichita, Kan., fielded a call from a frantic parent whose 14-year-old son had just been bitten by a dog. As a direct primary care (DPC) practice, however, Atlas gives its patient “members” unlimited 24/7 access and a bevy of in-office procedures at no additional fee. The rate for children is $10 a month, and today was the payoff for this family.
“We got him into an exam room by 10:15, washed out, sewn up and on the way home by 11 a.m.,” said Doug Nunamaker, M.D., who spent two years as a hospitalist before joining the practice full time in 2012. He calculated that if the child had been treated at the local emergency room, his $680 bill wouldn’t even have included the physician’s fee.
“That one episode was worth five years and eight months of membership for that child,” said Nunamaker.
AAFP News Now recently visited Atlas MD to get a first-hand look at direct primary care, a practice model in which patients pay a monthly fee for unfettered access to their physicians and a wide variety of primary care services
Family Physicians, Patients Embrace Direct Primary Care
AAFP Recognizes Benefits, Creates DPC Policy