DPC's See Big Savings

There is an interesting development in North Carolina regardinghealth care savings that has not been gaining the publicity it

deserves. Direct primary care networks have been illustratingrecently that they aid private and self-insured employers to a

tremendous extent. By including this additional benefit option forworkers to have a doctor spend more time managing their healthcare, these direct primary care (DPC) networks have effectively

reduced “emergency room visits, specialist referrals, andinpatient admissions”

In addition to this development,the public sector has success toboast of as well. In particular,

North Carolina’s Union Countyclaims they are expecting to seea full million dollars in savings

by the end of their first yearcontract with Paladina Health.

Paladina is a trend-settinghealthcare delivery

organization that resideswithin the direct primary care

network arena. Actually,interestingly enough, Union

County is the only county in allof North Carolina to offer thissort of DPC benefit as of last

April, and as such, it is the onlycounty to witness such

impressive, and projected,savings.

If the projected savings do indeed come to fruition, that will be one milliondollars saved on only 37 percent of the county’s nearly 2,000 covered

individuals who look for preventative care from a certified professional at a“near-site” clinic. Should the same coverage be applied to all covered

persons, the savings could be, well, astronomical; and if the coverage wasapplied across all of North Carolina, the savings would be of invaluable

significance to both employers and employees across the board.

This all said, I am notblindly promoting a

consumer-driven planunaware of the

criticism that goesalong with it. In fact,lower wage earners

and individualsalready deeply

entrenched in thehealthcare system

may experienceprofound difficulty in a

reorientated system.Yet, since when is thefact that the system is

already broken anexcuse for not fixing it?

We must still entertain potential innovation when itshows its hand, and DPC networks may very well be the

future. Regardless of whether or not DPC’s pose aneffective solution for healthcare cost reduction, we must

at least pay their success the attention it deserves.