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FAQs

Direct Primary Care FAQ; Your Tooele County Questions Answered

Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of the mostly commonly asked questions about our practice serving Tooele County, the care we provide, and the direct primary care model. This direct primary care FAQ section addresses the most common concerns from Stansbury Park, Grantsville, and surrounding Tooele area families.

Direct Primary Care

Direct Primary Care, or DPC, is a model of healthcare that puts patients first by getting rid of the red tape that constrains traditional primary care practices. How? It’s simple: we don’t accept insurance, and – believe it or not – this actually saves you money in the long run. Our DPC practice serves Tooele County families with personalized care that traditional insurance models can’t match.

You won’t have to pay a co-pay for office visits or routine physicals. Also you’ll be able to avoid many visits altogether by sending your questions directly to us via email and text – something you won’t get from a traditional primary care practice. We’ve negotiated amazing deals for prescription medications, blood tests, X-rays, and MRI/CT scans on your behalf. If we had contracts with insurance company partners, we would be legally obligated to charge higher prices.

More importantly, since you are getting all this amazing care from us, you can cut way back on your insurance premiums. Most DPC patients find a high-deductible, low-premium insurance plan so they’re covered in the case of a major health issue. But leave the rest of your healthcare to our DPC provider serving Tooele County.

Of course. Everyone benefits from a service tailored directly to them. That’s why we offer truly custom healthcare. We’re here for you if you’re sick or hurt, but we also help you proactively maintain good overall health through preventive care. Every visit with us will be thorough, relaxed, and as long as you need to address your health concerns. The longer you’re our patient, the more we learn about your health and lifestyle, and the better we can help you maintain that health. This frequent medical attention to detail sets our DPC clinic apart from traditional insurance practices.

The terms are often mistakenly used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Both DPC and concierge care practices charge a periodic fee, however, under the concierge medicine model, this fee only gets you access; that is, it doesn’t actually cover any of your care. Instead a concierge care practice still bills insurance for your visits. Under DPC, your visits and other care are included in your fee, plus you’re provided with other incredible benefits like wholesale pricing for labs and radiology studies, deeply discounted prescription prices, direct access to your provider, and all the rest.

 Here’s a few articles that profile the Direct Primary Care approach to medicine:

  • FORBES: Direct Primary Care: Restoring The PA-Patient Relationship
  • TIME Medicine is About to Get Personal
  • US News Physicians Abandon Insurance for Blue Collar Model
  • AARP The Doctor Will See You But Not Your Insurance
  • American Academy of family medicine Direct Primary Care
  • WRAL Patients Pay Monthly Fee, Not Insurance Co-Pay to See Raleigh physician

Membership Questions

See our prices on our pricing page. We charge a flat monthly fee, and in exchange you get unlimited office visits, wholesale prices on prescription medication, your provider’s cell phone number, and a whole lot more. Our direct primary care membership is designed to be affordable for Tooele County families.

 The fee covers excellent primary care through office visits with no copay. This includes the following: annual wellness exams, sports physicals, school physicals, chronic care office visits, follow-up visits, basic office procedures and treatment of acute illness or minor injuries, all with minimal wait times in the office. The fee also covers direct communications with your PA: phone, text, video chat or email. These extended visits and comprehensive care are hallmarks of our DPC practice.

Our patients will also have access to discounted labs, prescriptions and special procedures not included in the membership fees.

We treat all kinds of common everyday problems like colds, flu, strep, rashes and injuries. We also treat more complicated long term medical problems like adult diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and thyroid disorder. Our primary care services cover the full spectrum of family medicine needs for Tooele County residents, providing medical care that rivals any primary care provider in the area.

For starters, having such unprecedented direct access to your physician assistant will prevent hospitalizations and specialty referrals in many cases. However when those types of care are required, we will certainly continue to work with your hospitalist during your hospital stay as well as work closely with any specialist. Depending on the level of care and the sorts of expertise required, we may rely on those specialized caregivers to manage your treatment. Our healthcare provider coordinates all specialty care needs and specialist visits.

Yes. We are happy to accept the children of our enrolled clients. See our pricing page for details. Our primary care physician provides excellent care for Tooele County families.

Of course! Physician access is one of the greatest benefits of the direct primary care model. Because illness and injury do not respect regular office hours, you may call, text, or email your physician whenever you need. This direct access sets our DPC provider apart from traditional primary care practices.

Of course – this sort of care is “baked in” to the DPC model. Because you’ll have your providers email and phone number, you can reach out to us whenever you need, wherever you are. Many illnesses can be diagnosed and treated with a simple conversation. We’ll also locate the nearest pharmacy and order the medications most appropriate for your circumstances. This medical attention availability is a key benefit in our direct primary care FAQ.

We maintain high standards of patient privacy. We will never provide your health information to any third party unless you specifically ask that we do so. This privacy protection is a cornerstone of the direct primary care practice model.

Charges will be added and applied to your preferred method of payment.

 We expect to have an open, honest, respectful relationship with you. If you have voiced a complaint that we cannot satisfy together, we will gladly allow you to terminate your membership.

Unfortunately, no. Your retainer is not yet defined as a “medical expense” in most states and as such is not deductible. Please confer with your tax consultant to clarify tax consequences in your particular circumstances.

Insurance Questions

 No, fortunately for both you and us. Perhaps the most critical distinction in our model of care centers on a direct, personal relationship between you and your provider. That directness carries over to our business model as well. You might use your auto insurance to fix a smashed fender or other major damages. But you’d never use it to get an oil change (or pay for gas!). For some reason, health insurance is currently being used for the equivalent of oil changes for humans – routine physicals, office visits, simple blood tests, and minor procedures. This just doesn’t make sense.

We forgo insurance payments in order to save our patients from the arbitrary, intrusive decisions that come with using medical insurance. Charging a direct monthly fee frees us from the typical contractual agreements that prevent non-DPC physicians from offering wholesale prices on laboratory tests, imaging, and medications.

Yes, we take care of any patient regardless of your insurance situation. Since we work completely outside the insurance system, none of the billing for care here is eligible for insurance reimbursement. However, we recommend that everyone have insurance coverage, which is still important in the event of a major health issue.

 Summit Direct Health Complements Insurance While Direct Primary Care at Summit can cover about 80-90% of all your healthcare needs, it is not a total replacement for health insurance. In fact, we recommend pairing your Direct Primary Care with a high-deductible insurance plan or health share. This saves you money and provides you with comprehensive coverage for everyday healthcare needs and emergency situations alike. One health share option we love is Big Stuff Health Share – Go check them out!

No, but this could change in the future. Currently, we do not accept Medicare patients in our practice. However, we are continuously evaluating our policies and may consider accepting Medicare in the future as our practice evolves.
If you’re interested in our services and have Medicare, we encourage you to check back with us periodically for updates on our Medicare acceptance policy. In the meantime, you may want to explore other healthcare options that currently accept Medicare, or consider supplemental insurance plans that might cover our services.
We understand this may be disappointing for Medicare beneficiaries who are interested in our care model, and we appreciate your understanding as we work to provide the best possible service structure for all our patients.

You may want to check with your human resources department regarding the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) as possible payment options for your membership. If you are unable to use these funds to pay for the membership fee directly, there is a good chance that you can still use your HSA/FSA as reimbursement for certain services provided through our office.

Unfortunately, no. Your retainer is not yet defined as a “medical expense” in most states and as such is not deductible. Please confer with your tax consultant to clarify tax consequences in your particular circumstances.

Additional Benefits and Services

Unlike urgent care centers that treat you as a one-time visitor, our DPC physician knows your complete medical history and provides continuity of care. While urgent care is great for immediate needs, our primary care physician assistant focuses on long-term health management and patient care relationships that urgent care facilities simply cannot offer.

The Affordable Care Act doesn’t impact our direct primary care practice since we operate outside the traditional insurance system. This independence allows our DPC provider to focus on patient care without insurance company restrictions or ACA compliance burdens that affect traditional primary care practices.