Total Access Medical - Direct Primary Care Blog

Primary care serves as the cornerstone for building a strong healthcare system that ensures positive health outcomes and health equity. The function of primary care includes managing new health complaints that pose no immediate threat to life, managing long-term conditions and supporting the patient in deciding when referral to hospital-based services is necessary. A key aim is to keep people well, by providing a consistent point of care over the longer term, tailoring and co-ordinating care for those with multiple health care needs and supporting the patient in self-education and self-management. 

In a world created by non-physician administrators where 10 minutes per patient, 30 patients per day, little ancillary support and the constant threat of litigation is mixed with declining reimbursements and high debt loads, it comes as little surprise that primary care physician burnout is among the highest of any occupation.

As Donald Trump begins to transition into his presidency, the healthcare community has begun to make predictions about the impact of Trump’s policies on independent physicians. But what can direct primary care providers expect to see the next four years?

The U.S. is in the midst of a healthcare bubble that will put the housing bubble to shame. Here's an explanation. 

Primary care physicians are downbeat about the future of the medical profession. 

Insurance is the root cause of the many problems and inconveniences patients face in primary health care today. From the overcrowded doctor schedules, packed waiting rooms, and flustered doctors to the overall degeneration of the patient-doctor relationship, insurance is the reason why primary care is failing and why you are not given the quality of care you deserve. 

When you go in for a visit with your primary care doctor, do you sit in the crowded waiting room for an unannounced amount of time? Does the staff seem overworked? Does your doctor seem flustered? Is he/she rushed to move on to the next patient? Well, these are all typical complaints of today's primary care system. 

In the era of increasing regulatory oversight, more physicians are considering the direct primary care model as an alternative method of practice. 

How much does the average American pay for healthcare every year? And, would enrolling with a direct primary care practice save Americans more money?