Dr. Paul Thomas

What Dr. Jade Had to Say About our DPC Master Class

On May 14th and 15th, we hosted our DPC Master Class 2021 at our Plum Health Office in Detroit. We hosted students in-person from Las Vegas Nevada, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Spokane Washington; we also had students join us virtually for our live-streamed content.

We received a glowing review from Dr. Jade Norris who came to Detroit to learn how to start and grow her Direct Primary Care practice. She hopes to take back this knowledge to her hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada and to serve her community with affordable and accessible healthcare.

Here’s what Dr. Jade had to say:

✨ Mentorship is essential! Detroit was awesome!

✨ This weekend I visited Dr. Paul Thomas of @plumhealthdpc for his Direct Primary Care Masterclass!

✨ Dr. Paul has one of the most successful Direct Primary Care practices in the country and also started his practice straight from residency!

✨I learned so much this weekend and I’m so thankful for the mentorship! I can’t wait to bring quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to Las Vegas in 2022!

@nspireprimarycare is in the planning stages and I’m trusting God every step of the way!

The DPC Master Class is Returning August 20th and 21st

The DPC Master Class is returning August 20th and 21st! We’ll be hosting at our Detroit office and teaching doctors how to start and grow their DPC practices in a unique, in-person event! Join us by enrolling here.

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING AN DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Can You Have a Successful Practice and See Five Patients Each Day?

Every day, primary care doctors are running from room to room, having less and less time to spend with their patients. That’s because our current system incentivizes doctors to see more and more patients in less and less time. Doctors lose out because they don’t have enough time to invest in the relationship with patients, and patients lose out because they don’t have enough time to get the excellent medical care that they deserve.

But what if there was a better way?

In this podcast episode hosted by Brent Lacey MD and the Scope of Practice, we explore what it looks like to start and grow a direct primary care practice. In this model, the relationship between doctor and patient is paramount. Therefore, there is a huge emphasis on creating enough time for doctor and patient to spend together, creating enough time and space for the delivery of excellent medical care.

Here’s what the Scope of Practice had to say about it:

Episode 20 – The Direct Primary Care (DPC) model is disrupting the marketplace of the modern healthcare industry.  It’s a good thing too, since the U.S. is projecting a massive shortage of physicians over the next 20 years.  Dr. Paul Thomas has become a national expert in the DPC model, having successfully built his own direct primary care practice over the last few years.

In this model, he sees 5-6 patients a day, makes a middle six-figure salary, and has tremendous patient satisfaction scores.  If that sounds too good to be true, it almost is.  Work less and make good money?  And it’s better for your patients?  And it saves them money too?  No, this is not a scam, this is a phenomenal business model!

Whether you’re interested in direct primary care or not, this episode has got some great information for you!  Dr. Thomas shares his incredible business savvy to help us learn how we can modify our own practice to make more money, have a better lifestyle, and yet still help our patients more!

“Direct primary care is ‘concierge medicine for everyone else.’  It’s a membership model for primary care that makes health care affordable for the average person.”

 – Dr. Paul Thomas

Contact Dr. Thomas:

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Paul Thomas MD at Hint Summit 2020

This is Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC and Startup DPC and I'm so excited to be speaking at the Hint Summit 2D on September 24th and 25th. This will bring together thought leaders like Dr. Zubin Damania and Dr. Marty Makary who will be speaking about the Direct Primary Care model of health care and how it's having an impact for doctors and patients.

I too will be speaking at the conference and I will be helping doctors understand how to leverage their personal brand or their character to grow their direct primary care practices. I'm passionate about this work because I believe in this model of care and I want DPC for my family members, friends, neighbors, and community.

If you're interested in learning more, check out the Hint Summit 2D happening September 24th and 25th, and have a wonderful week.

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC and Startup DPC

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

AAFP Direct Primary Care Summit 2020 Preview with Dr. Paul Thomas

AAFP DPC Summit 2020

The AAFP DPC Summit is going virtual - I know it’s not ideal, but we’ll make the most of it. I’m very excited to be participating this year and I’ll be giving two different talks. The first will be a panel on Friday night with the students and residents, discussing how we started our practice straight out of residency. The second will be a presentation on Saturday at 11:30 am on how to build out your own beautiful office space for your practice - how to leverage the funds, how to work with an architect, how to negotiate a lease, and how to build a beautiful space for your patients and your community. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

-Dr. Paul Thomas

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

Paul Thomas MD and Startup DPC Featured on Physician Estate

This week, Paul Thomas MD and Startup DPC was featured on Physician Estate. Here’s the full interview:

Direct Primary Care vs Traditional Fee-for-Service Medicine

Direct Primary Care Practice vs. Traditional Fee-for-Service. We wanted to know more about DPC practice and how it is different from fee-for-service from the perspective of an experienced DPC doctor. We were lucky enough to have a Q&A interview with Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health DPC. Dr. Paul Thomas is a board-certified family medicine physician practicing in Corktown Detroit. His practice is Plum Health DPC, a Direct Primary Care service that is the first of its kind in Detroit and Wayne County.

In this Q&A blog post interview, he will share about his practice, challenges and milestones in his journey, and tips for physicians who are planning to start their own DPC practice. Are you a physician interested in starting your own DPC practice? This blog post might be helpful for you!

On Background

1. Please tell us a bit about your personal story, growing up, and medical training.

  • I started volunteering in Detroit for homeless and uninsured folks in 2017. I really love taking care of people, but the further and further I got into my training, the less and less time I spend with my patients. Until I get to the end of my residency, I’m spending 10 or 15 minute per patient, and spending a lot more time charting, writing things in the medical record. I thought this was really unsustainable, I felt burned out–I didn’t want to do that anymore. 

  • So I wrote a business plan in the last year of my residency, and I launched my practice, Plum Health DPC. And 4 years later, I’ve been doing really well with the practice–we’ve grown, we’ve hired 2 more doctors and we had a second location. 

2. What made you develop interest in Direct Primary Care? Motivating factors? Did you pursue any formal education/training that focuses on Direct Primary Care? If so, what was it?

  • I developed an interest in Direct Primary Care because I felt like it was the only way out of a dysfunctional, industrial complex. I didn’t have any formal training in this, I wrote a business plan, I worked with a friend who started a suit company, of all things to write a business plan.

  • I went on a road trip, visited a few mentors across the country who helped me formulate my plans and refine my business plan and make it so that I could develop a thriving practice here in Detroit, Michigan.

About Plum Health – A Direct Primary Care Platform

3. What is Plum Health? As a platform that specializes in Direct Primary Care practice, what is its unique value proposition? Tell us the story behind its creation. 

  • In Plum Health, we believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible for everyone, so we really do our best to lower the cost in Detroit and beyond. We contract with a local imaging vendor, a medication wholesale supplier, etc. to lower the costs of all those things. 

  • So if you come in for a lab draw, you might get a TSH for $6, that’s what it costs here. But if you go to a hospital, it might cost you $125. So we really try to reduce the cost of healthcare for people. 

  • Our unique value proposition is that we have time for our patients. Because our patients pay a monthly membership to be a part of our practice, we have this nice recurring revenue from our patients. We then get to spend more time with them as an individual–we have 1-hour appointments, and we can really listen to them and take care of them and all their concerns.  

4. Generally, how do you help educate physicians in the US who are interested in starting their own Direct Primary Care practice? Do you provide any services, courses, coaching, etc?

  • I’m so glad you asked this. I’ve written 2 books about this. The first is called Direct Primary Care–it focuses on how Direct Primary Care serves people in the greater healthcare ecosystem, how you can lower the cost of healthcare for everyone (medications, labs, imaging, etc.) We also discuss how we’ve done this in an equitable and sustainable way in our hometown of Detroit, Michigan. 

  • For the book How to Start Your Direct Primary Care Practice, we’ve had so much success here in Detroit. Because I’ve been a speaker at the American Academy of Family Physicians Direct Primary Care Conference and the Nuts and Bolts Conference in Florida, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and asked how we were successful, how we did this. To answer that, I wrote a book–it’s called Start Up DPC, how to start and grow your Direct Primary Care practice. I wrote in step-by-step how to start your Direct Primary Care practice. I’ve got a ton of great feedback on this book! We’ve had a lot of people reach out and say how impactful the book has been for them, and we’ve helped other doctors launch their own practices.

  • I’ve been doing consulting throughout this, so people pay me some money each hour that I consult with them, and I’ve also taken everything I’ve learned and put it into some courses on my website https://startupdpc.com. I really walk doctors step-by-step through how to start and grow their practices, and I go beyond just the words, I show you how to do it physically. I show you how to do it online and how to leverage your Facebook page and other social media channels to grow your business etc.

Challenges and Milestones in Starting A Direct Primary Care Practice

5. What are some of the mistakes you made when you were still starting out with your Direct Primary Care practice? If you had to redo the whole journey, what would you do differently?

  • The biggest mistake was I was thinking too small, I should have hired a medical assistant sooner. I thought I could do everything by myself, and I could–I could draw blood, count all the lab samples and the meds, I can answer all the phone calls, and I did that for about 450 patients, and I hired a medical assistant. And as soon as I did that, it freed up so much of my time to market the practice and help me grow my business.

  • So if I had to redo the whole journey, I would have hired someone sooner. As a business owner you want to control everything, but sometimes you have to delegate and relinquish that control so you can focus on your strengths to help you grow your business. 

6. Share a few very milestones you achieved in your Direct Primary Care journey.

  • One of those big milestones was hiring a medical assistant, another doctor to help me lower the cost of healthcare in Detroit. I’m very happy to share it with my partner who is Dr. Raquel Orlich.

  • Another milestone for me is getting to 500 patients, and 200 patients for Dr. Raquel, and now she’s over 250 patients. These are the milestones that we celebrate because we’re actively learning the cost for healthcare in our community, we’re helping patients, we’re liberating doctors from the dysfunctional fee-for-service medical industrial complex system. 

7. How do you see Direct Primary Care evolving over the next 5-10 years? How does the political climate and ever so polar political opinions affect the evolution of DPC? 

  • I only see Direct Primary Care growing over time because people hate having to deal with their insurance for their basic healthcare needs. It puts up so many barriers between people and our doctors. Direct Primary Care doctors are problem solvers. We go above and beyond to solve problems for our patients and make our healthcare journey easier. So when you have doctors actively working on behalf of patients, it’s only going to grow because patients see value in that kind of work that doctors provide. 

  • As for the political climate, or let’s say medicare for all passes, which does not apply for Donald Trump, or presidential candidate Joe Biden at this time, neither of these political parties want to see medicare for all at this point. But let’s say even if it does pass 20 years from now, the United States government will not be able to outlaw elective procedures. Americans will always be able to opt for paying above and beyond for health insurance, etc. 

  • In a nutshell, I don’t foresee paying above and beyond your health insurance for better healthcare experiences through Direct Primary Care or concierge medicine. I don’t ever see that being outlawed in the US.

Direct Primary Care vs. Traditional Fee-for-Service

*This section is for patients and doctors that are not yet aware of DPC

8. In a nutshell, what do you think is the major difference of Direct Primary Care practice vs. Traditional fee-for service? 

  • The number of patients. Fee-for-service doctors have 2,500 patients a year, and they have to see 1% of their panel each day. So they have to see at least 25 patient visits a day. In our model, we only need 500 patients to have a robust, thriving practice. We make about the same amount of money as a fee-for-service doctor. 

  • That being said, I have 5 times fewer patients and 5 times more time for each of those patients. It makes a huge difference.  

9. Why should a patient consider enrolling in a Direct Primary Care practice over the traditional fee-for-service?

  • You are going to have 5 times more time with your doctor, you’re going to have your doctor’s mobile number and email address, you’re going to be able to reach out to them whenever you need them and not the other way around. 

  • We’re not fitting you into our schedule, we’re making time for you anytime you need us. 

10. If you are explaining about Direct Primary Care to a layman who doesn’t have a medical background, what would be your 2-minute explanation to make him/her understand Direct Primary Care practice?

  • We really believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible for everyone. You should sign up for Direct Primary Care practice if you want to have your doctor’s mobile number and text them anytime you need them. Basically if you want to have a better healthcare experience. 

  • My patients have my undivided attention for 20-30 minutes to an hour if they need it. I help them with their medications, etc. We take care of everything. If you want that kind of service for yourself and for your family, we’re happy to help you. We do that to all our patients, we deliver high quality, high value services. 

Favorites

11. Favorite book that talks about Direct Primary Care; and favorite book in general about any topic

  • My favorites are the 2 books that I’ve written. Startup DPC and Direct Primary Care: The Cure for Our Broken Healthcare System are available on Amazon. Pick those up, you’ll really understand my ethos, and the ethos of the Direct Primary Care movement. People have a lot of great things to say about them. 

  • My favorite book in general about business is Crush It by Gary Vander Truck. If you want to know how to market your business, your Direct Primary Care practice, you can learn a lot from reading Gary V. 

12. As someone who is an advocate of Direct Primary Care practice, what are your favorite resources for Direct Primary Care?

  • I would say my website https://startupdpc.com. I really took the time to compile all the resources in the ecosystem and give it to you in a palpable, easy-to-understand, easy-to-digest format. 

13. Favorite bloggers that have the same passion as you when it comes to Direct Primary Care

  • I blog a lot about this subject, I haven’t seen anyone “out blog” me, so check out our blog at https://startupdpc.com/blog. See for yourself.  

14. Favorite quote

  • “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.” –Theodore Roosevelt

Tips for Physicians Who Are Planning to Start Their Own Direct Primary Care Practice

15. Many physicians find it challenging to start their own Direct Primary Care practice. As someone who’s been in the Direct Primary Care business for quite some time now, what do you think physicians should first do when they are starting out? Any tips and/or strategies you highly recommend?

  • I really recommend you read my books because I put them all in there. 

  • My biggest tip is that doctors think that when they start their Direct Primary Care practice, it’s for everyone. You ask them who’s your ideal customer and they say “everybody”. But it’s not true. You really have to hammer down and hone in on who your ideal customer is. If you don’t, you’re going to try to serve everyone, and your business is going to fail.

Paul Thomas MD has written two books on Direct Primary Care - both can be found on Amazon, here: Startup DPC and Direct Primary Care.

Paul Thomas MD has written two books on Direct Primary Care - both can be found on Amazon, here: Startup DPC and Direct Primary Care.

Should I start a direct primary care practice during this recession?

This is Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC - I help doctors start and grow their direct primary care practices. A common question that I have been getting lately is in regards to if it’s a good idea to start a direct primary care practice right now because of the coronavirus and the effect on our economy.

Should I start my Direct Primary Care Practice During a Recession?

The first thing that I’ll say is that there’s never a good time to start a mediocre business. If you write an excellent business plan, and if you consistently deliver excellent care and service to your patients, you will be successful with your direct primary care practice, regardless of the greater economic forces. On the other hand, if you start a mediocre DPC practice, that gives okay service, that doesn’t put customers first, you’ll have a difficult time regardless of the economic ups and downs.

What is the most important thing that you can do to build a strong Direct Primary Care business, regardless of the economy?

The most important thing that you can do to build a strong direct primary care practice is to build trusting relationships with your patients and the broader community. As long as you’re producing quality care and not mediocrity, you can build strong relationships with your patients. With everything going on in the world today, with our economy taking a hit from the Coronavirus and people who are scared of the global pandemic, people are looking for a trusted physicians to talk to.

This is where you come in - you can be that trusted physician to help guide your community through these troubling times. You can communicate your knowledge in an understandable way and help people to navigate these difficult times. You can provide people with affordable and accessible healthcare, even as they lose employment and therefore their health insurance policies.

How to Weigh Price and Value when selling your Direct Primary Care services

If you're adding value to a consumer, you'll be in business. The value proposition is measured in terms of value versus price. If you believe you're offering value and a quality service but aren't seeing customers, marketing is needed. If your marketing plan is solid and customers know about you, but you're not getting business, you should re-evaluate your value proposition.

If you still can't figure it out, find a business strategy expert who will work with you to increase your chances of success. They can help you find the gap in your marketing plan and business plan, and help you break through whatever gaps exist.

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE Practice?

If you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Positive Reviews for our Presentation at the AAFP DPC Summit 2019

In June 2019, I was invited to speak about personal branding at the AAFP DPC Summit 2019 in Chicago. It was an incredible event with hundreds of Direct Primary Care doctors from across the country sharing best practices with each other.

Dr. Paul Thomas speaks at the AAFP DPC Summit 2019. His talk is about using your personal brand to grow your Direct Primary Care practice.

Dr. Paul Thomas speaks at the AAFP DPC Summit 2019. His talk is about using your personal brand to grow your Direct Primary Care practice.

My presentation was entitled "Building a Personal Brand to Grow your DPC Practice" and I talked about the tools that you can use to attract and retain patients for your DPC practice. Basically, if you can build a strong personal brand, people in your community will trust you with their health care and want you to be their doctor.

For the Effectiveness of Faculty (ie. knowledge of subject, organization & clarity, effectiveness of teaching methods), I was rated as excellent by 90.8% of the attendees. The remaining 9.2% rated me as very good. I had no good, fair, or poor ratings.

I received so many positive reviews for the presentation that I gave and it was really validating for the amount of time, effort, and energy that I put into these events. Anyways, here are some of my favorite notes from my colleagues:

-Excellent speaker! This was very helpful, and he’s got a fantastic, enthusiastic delivery!

- Great success story with outside-the-box marketing.

- Really interesting presentation. Eye-opening and useful for more than my practice.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

- Paul Thomas, MD