Homestead Direct Primary Care

What is direct primary care?

A way of providing healthcare that keeps medical care between the doctor and the patient, where it was meant to be, instead of having to involve an insurance company.  This allows for there to be no confusion about who is in charge – the patient – who I am working for, and whose best interests – financially, physically, mentally, spiritually – are what I am interested in furthering.

Many patients have insurance, as well, which we are able to use for surgeries, medications, labs, imaging, and specialist visits, as we need to.  But the time that most people spend trying to get in to see their insurance doctor for regular things is just outrageous.  That’s why it’s worth it to them to pay a low monthly fee to basically have their very own physician on retainer.  I can save them so much time be simply being available.  No waiting on hold or phone trees to ‘press 3 for this, press 4 for this’ forever to just leave a message that goes right to your doctor.  No blocking out your whole day’s schedule just for a doctor’s visit because you don’t know how long you’ll be kept waiting.  No waiting AGAIN at a lab or a pharmacy for medications when I often can do that for you right in my office.

What’s neat about DPC is how it benefits both patients and doctors alike.  Patients get unlimited appointments, longer visit times, no unexpected extra costs or copays, wholesale prices for labs and medications, and access to their doctor via text and email all the time.  Doctors save a lot of money by not having to have extra staff just for billing insurance, and even save time in writing in the medical record just what they find useful, not what the insurance senselessly requires for ‘proper’ billing.  I spend that extra time having longer appointments with patients, and also going home on time to see my family.

What is HOMESTEAD DPC?

I have 5 acres and a bunch of animals and a big garden, because that’s what I enjoy in my spare time.  And there is a movement for modern homesteaders to not only be creating food for their families, but also to be working to heal the ground from damage done to it in the past from misguided theories.  I see very similar goals in my medical care; I not only want to provide care for your wart today, but I also want to work over years of our relationship together to heal the damage done in the past, whether from doctors rushing through the appointment and not thinking out what they were saying to you and how they were saying it.  Or theories about how calories in and out and your weight are correlated.

Why are you a family medicine doctor?

My day isn’t complete without interacting with people of all ages.  I can’t imagine just seeing kids all day, or just seeing adults; the variety of concerns and personalities and interests is exactly what energizes me through a long day.

I also enjoy the breadth of what a primary care doctor has to know.  I am constantly reading and updating my knowledge of the latest research regarding a health topic – sometimes right in front of the patient, reading it out loud together – and I think that flexibility and curiosity benefits my patients.  I’m not an expert of everything – that’s why you go to specialists when you need to – but I can at least get you started on the right track.