Recent Review for Startup DPC Book

Startup DPC Book Reaches 103 five star reviews

This week, the Startup DPC book reaches 103 five star reviews. Here’s one of our recent reviews:

This book is a must read for those interested in direct primary care. Very well written to the point while not missing out on any details. It will prepare even those with absolutely no knowledge or background in business (like myself) to be able to successfully start a DPC clinic.

Startup DPC reaches 103 five star reviews this week!

Also, here’s a very kind email that I received from one of our readers:

Hi Paul,

My name is [Doctor]. I'm a primary care physician and owner of the newly formed clinic [a} Direct Primary Care. I just wanted to send you an email of thanks. I've read your book twice now in the lead up to starting this company. Once, about 2 years ago when it first came out - I was incredibly inspired, but at that time, I was an employed physician and had a lot of self-doubt about whether I could really do it. This time around, I read it about 3 weeks ago in about 3 days after I left that same employed job after I was just fed up with feeling run down, anxious, depressed, and like a glorified employee - I read it the second time, not because I wanted to do DPC, but because I HAD to do DPC. I found my why and I credit your book with a lot of the momentum I am gaining in the community. We just launched our pre-enrollment today and already have 5 patients signed up. You have inspired me more than you can imagine. And I just wanted to say I appreciate you and everything you do for physicians.

Have a great day!

[Doctor]

All that’s to say I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the doctors in this Direct Primary Care movement and I’m so happy and grateful that this Startup DPC book is a key resource for starting and growing a direct primary care practice.

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

How to get low cost labs for your direct primary care practice

How to get low cost labs for your direct primary care practice

I am a physician in suburban Detroit that is interested in the DPC and house call-based primary care model. I recently watched your segment on the Channel 4 news and was particularly interested in:

1. How do you run such low-cost labs (I looked into LabCorp & Quest and they were really expensive unless you do high-volume with them)

2. Similarly, how do you get low-cost meds and imaging?

3. What are the panel sizes that make sense for this model (I would guess that you would need a smaller panel size to support a higher-touch practice)

4. How do you market/attract pts to this model, particularly since you are not getting any referrals from insurance companies?

5. I just bought your book on Amazon, do you have any other resources you recommend?

Here’s my response:

all of these questions are answered in the book :) 

1.) We asked Quest over and over and over and over and over and over and over again for better prices until they caved

2.) We get low cost meds via ANDAmeds, we get low cost imaging via Regional Medical Imaging

3.) We aim for 500 patients per doctor 

4.) We attract via social media and SEO

5.) read the Startup DPC book! and check out our courses on www.StartupDPC.com - the Sales Funnel Course will be especially helpful for you!

- Paul 

Seriously, you have to call Quest over and over and over and over and over again until you get through to the right person. BUT you don’t have to have amazing prices to start. You can get decent prices or start without offering labs, and then just layer on better and better services and better prices as time goes on. Your Direct Primary Care practice doesn’t have to be perfect from day 1, you just have to continually strive to improve it with each day, week, month, and year, and THEN you’ll have an amazing practice and business.

Are Dachshunds the Unofficial Mascot of the Direct Primary Care Movement?

Maybe this is the pandemic fatigue talking, but perhaps Dachshunds are the perfect dog breed for an aspiring Direct Primary Care doctor. Perhaps I’m biased, as we have three dachshunds in our family, but I got an amazing email from an aspiring DPC doctor this week that may make the case for dachshunds as the unofficial mascot of the DPC movement.

Here’s our guy, Mr. Fritz, reading his copy of Startup DPC. Fritz is courageous, loyal, and always does the right thing - great qualities for a DPC doctor as well!

According to the internet, the dachshund, is also known as the wiener dog, badger dog, and sausage dog. It’s a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed. The Dachshund is described as clever, lively, and courageous to the point of rashness. They’re bred for perseverance, which is another way of saying that they can be stubborn. Dachshunds have a reputation for being entertaining and fearless, but what they want most is to cuddle with their people.

Whenever people pick up a course via our Startup DPC website, I always send a thank you note via email. This time, I got the most delightful response:

Thanks Paul. Not sure if this is an automated email but got your book last year- really well done. Saw you had a dachshund. Here’s a pic of mine reading your book.

Here’s Bella reading Startup DPC - dachshunds are loyal, clever, and lively!

Well, obviously this blog post is just for fun - send your pic of your dog reading a copy of Startup DPC, and we’ll feature them on the next post!
Have a great week,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

PS. Our Startup DPC book just hit 92 five star reviews on Amazon! Here’s the latest review:

I cannot express enough how helpful this book has been for me and my future plans as a DPC physician. Dr. Thomas explains simply and clearly the steps you need to successfully understand the ins and outs of a DPC practice. Super glad I found and read this book! 10/10 recommend

Our most recent review for the Startup DPC book.

Which electronic medical record system do you use for your direct primary care practice?

Which electronic medical record system do you use for your direct primary care practice?

We use ATLAS MD EMR or electronic medical record system. There are a lot of pros to using ATLAS, for both patients and doctors. In this video I answer a question that was emailed to me this week:

We have chosen Atlas.md as our EMR due to the payment integration and ease of use. I see that you also use Quickbooks and Atlas.md.

My questions are:

• Do you do any sort of integration to get your financial data (income) out of Atlas and into QB? Do you use the Desktop or Online version of QB?

• Do you use the Atlas Phone/SMS integration for interacting with patients?

How do you price your Direct Primary Care Practice to earn $70 per member per month?

How do you price your Direct Primary Care Practice to earn $70 per member per month?

Today I got an email asking a great question:

Dr. Thomas,

I'm getting close to giving my 120-day notice to my employer, with a target DPC start date of September!

I have a pricing question. If you prefer not to answer, I totally understand. In your business plan, you stated that your target average PMPM monthly rate was $70. Have you been able to achieve that?

Thanks, and have a great day!

This is a great question because in your business plan, you should figure out how much money you need to make to have a successful and thriving practice.

Because we work in a lower income community, Southwest Detroit, our pricing is lower to meet the needs of our community. Our per member per month revenue is around $50. We recently increased our prices to bring our per member per month revenue up to $55 monthly. This will help us to be more sustainable and profitable in the long term.

If you were to price a Direct Primary Care practice to make $70 per member per month, it would probably look like this:

• $25/month for children

• $65/month for young adults

• $80/month for older adults

The cut off for kids would be 17 and under, the cut off for young adults and older adults would be around 40 or 45 or 50 years of age, depending on your demographic.

@plumhealthdpc I help doctors start and grow direct primary care practices via #StartupDPC - today I’m answering a question on pricing 💯 #doctor #familymedicine ♬ 茉 莉 花 茶 - CHILLVIBE

I’ve been active on TikTok and I’m happy to answer any questions you have like this!

Best of luck in building your DPC practice,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

How to Raise Your Prices as a Direct Primary Care Practice

How to Raise Your Prices at your Direct Primary Care Practice

As a direct primary care doctor, you may come to a point where your prices don’t match the value that you provide to your community. Throughout this pandemic, we’ve gone above and beyond for our patients, so we’ve maintained a high level of care and service for the people who are members of our direct primary care practice. The pandemic has presented many challenges, one of those big challenges is the rising cost of necessary supplies and equipment for running our practice.

This month, as a group, we decided it was time to raise our prices to maintain our sustainability as a family medicine practice, while still keeping our service affordable for our members and community.

Here are the simple steps you can take to raise your prices in your direct primary care practice:

1.) Send everyone an email that you’re raising your prices.

2.) Be prepared for praise and criticism, and a few cancellations.

3.) Keep doing the great work that has helped you attract and retain patients thus far.

4.) Realize that there is no perfect answer, and keep moving forward and doing your best work every day.

Sample Letter for Raising Prices at your Direct Primary Care Practice

We wrote up a short and easy to digest email about raising our prices. We wanted to keep it simple without too much extra information.

At this time, we are raising our prices for most of our membership tiers. These pricing changes will go into effect on March 1st, 2022. Our new pricing sets are as follows:

Children, 0 to 17 years of age: $15 per month (an increase of $5/month)

Adults, 18 to 39 years of age: $55 per month (an increase of $6/month)

Older Adults 40 to 64 years of age: $75 per month (an increase of $6/month)

Senior Adults 65 and up: $89 per month (no change)

We had to make this difficult decision because of several factors including the increasing complexity of the services that we deliver at our clinic and the rising costs of necessary supplies and equipment for our business.

For example, pre-pandemic, a box of 200 latex gloves would cost $9.95, now it costs $24.95 for that same box of gloves.

We remain committed to delivering affordable and accessible health care services. These price increases will allow us to continue to deliver excellent care and service.

We appreciate you for being a part of the service, and our unending thanks for being a part of the our clinic.

Sincerely,

The Doctors of the Practice

Praise we received after raising our prices

Interestingly, we received a ton of praise after raising our prices! Here’s a smattering of what folks said:

• “Still the best deal in town!!!!!!”

• “It’s worth it.”

• “Thanks for letting me know. I think it’s only fair and justified!”

• “Makes sense- everyone is experiencing these price increases. You're doing amazing- people get it.”

• “As a small business owner who works (mostly) off a subscription model as well, i always talk about how i want my clients to look at what they pay me and say to themselves: ‘That’s the most valuable $xxx.xx i spend per month.’ I can tell you that as a customer in this case, the money I pay towards your services is the most valuable dang money i pay out every single month. Thank you for all that you do.”

Cancellations After We Raised Prices

We have faced some cancellations - 24 hours after our price increase, we have had about 8 people close their accounts. This month, we’ve had 46 new patients enroll in our service. We have had steady growth over the past few months and years, and our growth has almost always been greater than our attrition. That will hold true for this month as well. We currently have 1,125 patients in our practice.

In Summary

In summary, if you feel like your prices are too low, they probably are. Be bold and make the price increase so that you can feel good about the work that you do and the value that you provide for your patients and the community.

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

Latest Review for Startup DPC Book

I love reading the reviews for the Startup DPC book - I really appreciate all of the kind words you’ve said about the material therein! Here’s the latest:

Dr. Paul presents the full story here on how he himself started his DPC clinic. While some books might be vague about the general processes, Dr. Paul tells you exactly what he did, what he used, and how much everything cost. It's important for people to know what they're really investing when it comes to DPC clinics, and Dr. Paul makes shares everything in his book. He does a great job articulating each step, and he writes in a way that is easy to read. He has a great story and a great approach that would benefit anybody who might be interested in DPC. Definitely worth the read.

I love being a part of this direct primary care movement. Reflecting on 2021 , the Direct Primary Care movement is continuing to grow every day and every week - there seems to be a new direct primary care doctor starting their own practice just about every week, and it’s amazing to see this happen. Here’s to the continued growth and success of the movement and here’s to a healthier nation and a stronger doctor-patient relationship.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Sample Voicemail for a Direct Primary Care Office

Sample Voicemail for a Direct Primary Care Office

Throughout starting and growing a direct primary care practice, you will need to continuously refine your operations. One of the most important parts of growing a practice is having an excellent experience for your patients and potential patients when they call your office line. If you can answer your phone within a few rings and address any concerns quickly and with kindness, you can reap continuous business and referrals from satisfied patients. Answering the phone in a timely manner is crucial. But, in the event that you cannot answer the call due to a capacity issue or a cell signal issue, having a phone tree or voicemail is very important.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that pharmacies expect the voicemail to say not only the practice name, but also list the doctors within that practice.

Here’s an example of our daytime voicemail:

"You've reached Plum Health DPC, the offices of Drs. Thomas, Orlich, and Rabaut. Please leave a voicemail and we will return your call as soon as possible. Alternatively, email [our email address]. Our office hours are 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday. If you've reached our voicemail during this time, you can try calling back in 1 hour. Our fax number is [our fax number]. If this is an emergency and you cannot wait, please dial 911 or go to your nearest emergency department."

Here’s an example of our after-hours voicemail:

"Thank you for your call. You have reached the after hours line for Plum Health DPC, the offices of Drs. Thomas, Orlich, and Rabaut. Please leave a voicemail and we will return your call as soon as possible. Alternatively, email [our email address]. Our office hours are 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday. If your concern is non-urgent, please call back during our office hours. Our fax number is [our fax number]. If this is an emergency and you cannot wait, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department."

Obviously, our goal is to have every phone call answered promptly with a calm and kind demeanor. Sometimes, due to cell service issues or capacity issues, these call can be missed. Setting up a voicemail for these contingencies is important.

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Dr. Paul Thomas at the American Academy of Family Physicians Students and Residents Conference 2021

Dr. Paul Thomas at the American Academy of Family Physicians Students and Residents Conference 2021

In 2021, I got to participate in the AAFP’s Students and Residents Conference! It was a great experience and I loved interacting with students and teaching them about Direct Primary Care. I had a great time, and I think the students learned a lot from the presentation. My session was called “Direct Primary Care: Why Doctors Are Ditching Insurance for a More Fulfilling Practice of Medicine.”

This month, I got the most wonderful email from the AAFP staff about my presentation:

Hi!

Hope you are doing well.

As you may know, each of the National Conference workshops allowed participant review via numerical scores and written comments. These surveys were available throughout the conference and for the duration of time the platform was open for archive viewing. Results have now been tallied, and your session report is attached.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Thanks again for your participation in National Conference.

Best,

-AAFP Staff

Okay, the email was pretty good, but what was attached was truly wonderful. Attached to the email were the reviews from students, residents, and program directors for the presentation. Here’s those reviews:

• Amazing and encouraging. I don't know what the solution is to fixing healthcare in America, but this seems very promising.

• Amazing! Dr. Paul Thomas did a great job.

• Amazing! Very informative.

• Caught last half. Always looking for the latest and greatest opportunities for my residents to explore during or after graduation. We had a few residents speaking with interested applicants for this conference, but I don't think they attended your lecture. Our program will definitely be contacting you regarding lecture or rotation in future. You have a plethora of information to share, thank you very much. As a non physician, I will share you with my friends.

• Fantastic workshop, very informative!

• Great learning about a new way to practice FM!

• Great presentation

• Great talk and I appreciated how he answered so many questions.

• That was an eye-opening session for me. Thank you!

• Very helpful indeed. Will share this to our residents.

• Very informative!

• Wonderful presentation. Loved the topic has open my mind to a new way to practice FM!

• Wow, thank you for this presentation. I am inspired and optimistic for the future of family medicine.

On top of that, the overall rating from the 27 survey responses was a 5 out of 5!

Overall, Dr. Paul Thomas got a 5 out of 5 for the Direct Primary Care presentation at the AAFP National Conference.

The comments from students and residents blew me away!

The reviews and comments from the folks who attended this session really blew me away, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with the AAFP and teach the future of family medicine about Direct Primary Care and alternative practice models.

Thanks for reading!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC, physician and founder of Plum Health DPC

Decorating your Direct Primary Care Office

How to Make Your Primary Care Office Look Awesome

Doctors aren't the best interior decorators, so I'm showing you a few ways you can warm up your office with some simple pieces of art, news articles, diplomas, and furniture.

An Accent Wall is a Must

Having an accent wall behind your desk is a nice way of inviting people into your office. This can be a wood accent wall, a tile accent wall, or simply a fresh coat of paint that is colorful. The idea is that you want to draw people in and make people feel welcome when they visit your office.

Having a Feature Wall Can Showcase You and Your Team, and the Work that You Do

Having an interesting feature in your conference room can be a nice way to feature some achievements or your team dynamic. We have a photo of our team during a ribbon cutting and we also have some awards we've won along the way, as well as a plant.

Make Sure You Have a Coat Rack Near Your Scale

Having a coat rack near your scale is important - this allows patients to take off their coats and shed some of that extra weight when they have their weight measured.

Diplomas and Newspaper Articles About Your Practice Can Add Legitimacy to Your Office

Near the exam rooms, it would be nice to hang a newspaper clipping that features you or your office in the local news. We used a company called 'that's great news' to create a sleek version of two of our different media features. That gives us some legitimacy for our prospective patients when they tour the office - they will look at these articles and know that we're vouched for by the local news and that we've been around long enough to have some press materials.

Additionally, hanging your diploma or board certification near your exam room can help patients to know that you're board certified and that you have completed all the steps necessary to be a fully certified primary care physician. Keep these at eye level and, if you can, use the same framing material or the same frame shop for each diploma or board certification so you have nice consistency across these diplomas.

Family and Vacation Photos Above Your Desk Are Great, Too

Finally, above your desk in your office is a good place to keep family, friend, travel, or vacation photos. This will warm up your space and make it more comfortable for you to work, and this will perhaps remind you of why you work or hint at a deeper purpose.

Best of luck with your practice space and best of luck in making it your own!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC in Detroit, Michigan