Startup DPC: How To Start And Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice

by Paul Thomas

We all know that our current healthcare system is broken, especially for primary care doctors and their patients. Primary care physicians have to see more and more patients in less and less time in order to keep up with declining reimbursement from insurance companies. This leads to rushed office visits, missed opportunities for genuine connections between doctors and their patients, frustrated patients, and burned out doctors. But it doesn't have to be this way. Direct primary care offers a real opportunity at a fulfilling practice of medicine. It’s a golden opportunity to restructure your time, build the practice of your dreams, and spend your best hours taking care of patients and prioritizing your family life, rather than wasting time as a data entry clerk for an insurance company. In short, direct primary care gives you the opportunity to become the doctor that you're meant to be. But how do you get this done? How do you go from a less-than-fulfilled doctor in the dysfunctional fee-for-service system to an empowered, entrepreneurial direct primary care physician capable of starting their own successful DPC practice? The answers you're seeking are in this book! My name is Dr. Paul Thomas, and I'm a Board Certified Family Medicine Doctor - I launched my own direct primary care practice straight out of residency in Southwest Detroit with over $100,000 in student loan debt. In my first month of practice, I had 7 patients. A few years later, we have over 700 patients, and I've hired a medical assistant and a second family doctor to help me manage the growing demand for our services. I was named the entrepreneur of the year in 2018 by the Detroit Vanguard Awards, I gave a TEDxDetroit talk on direct primary care, and I've been featured in the Detroit Free Press, Reason Magazine, CBS Radio, Detroit's ABC affiliate WXYZ, Detroit's NBC affiliate WDIV, and Crain's Detroit Business. I've also been a speaker multiple times at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) DPC Summit, the Direct Primary Care Nuts and Bolts Conference, and the Hint Health DPC Summit. In this book, I'm going to teach you everything I know about direct primary care and about starting a successful direct primary care practice. Here's a smattering of the topics that we'll - How to have the right mindset to be successful in your direct primary care journey - How to become the doctor you're meant to be - What a typical day looks like for a direct primary care doctor - How to finance your direct primary care startup - How to raise money for your DPC practice - How to overcome a lack of business training in medical school and residency - How to construct the perfect timeline for starting your DPC practice - How to write a business plan for your direct primary care clinic - How to start a direct primary care practice straight out of residency - How to convert an existing fee-for-service clinic to a direct primary care practice while remaining profitable - What's the difference between direct primary care and concierge medicine - How to hire a second doctor for your DPC practice - How to find a profitable location for your DPC practice - How to negotiate a lease deal for your medical practice - How to build out the medical office of your dreams - How to attract patients to your direct primary care practice - How to brand your practice so you stand out in your marketplace - How to build your personal brand to grow your direct primary care practice And so much more! By picking up this book, you may be taking your first step in st

449 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2020

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Thomas’s texts have been instrumental in getting me familiarized and falling in love with DPC. Please keep writing!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great resource for those starting DPC practice!

[Ronald J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Paul Thomas writes: “You should start a direct primary care practice because you can become the doctor you’re meant to be.” There is a Japanese concept called Ikigai, or “your reason for being.” There’s no doubt what Dr. Paul’s reason for being is: to transform healthcare in the United States, transform the lives of his patients, better his community, and his profession. His passion bleeds through this book, and makes it an incredibly compelling read. It also is a nuts-to-bolts guide on how you can start your own Direct Primary Care practice, from marketing, branding, pricing, and a host of other issues that need to be addressed. When you read that we lose one doctor every day to physician suicide, the equivalent of an entire medical school graduating class, you realize that good people are working in a bad system. I absolutely love his question: “Who in this room would want a five minute haircut? No one raised their hand except for a bald guy. Why do you settle for a seven minute appointment for your health, for God’s sake?” Concierge and DPC medicine are transforming the way doctors provide, and patients consume, healthcare. It’s more affordable, convenient, accessible, but most importantly, it restores the sacred doctor-patient relationship. You will get an insider’s account of how Dr. Paul started his own practice, Plum Health, along with the trials, tribulations, and successes along his journey.

As someone who is interested in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that actually measure customer success, I loved the KPIs he measures at Plum Health: How many hospitalizations have we prevented? How many urgent care and emergency department visits have we prevented? If a patient has a weight loss goal. Management of their anxiety or depression, have we helped them meet that goal? How much money have we saved our patients? Have we decreased morbidity and mortality in our communities? These are much more difficult to measure accurately, but they get much closer to the truth regarding Plum’s efficacy as clinicians.

I hope this book is read by doctors looking to get back to why they became a doctor in the first place, rather than serving insurance companies and an unsustainable fee-for-service business model. And if you’re a patient, seriously consider finding a DPC doctor.

We have had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Paul two times, and a third one coming up on this book on June 26, 2020. You can listen to the first two interviews here:

https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/t...

https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/t...

[Jessica Duffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Critical read for anyone considering DPC

As a family physician with 25+ years of FFS experience, I found this book tremendously helpful in providing the guidance and confidence needed to launch a DPC practice.