General Info:
My office runs on a model called “direct primary care” or “DPC”. What does DPC mean to my patients? A DPC is an insurance-free doctor’s office that provides all the services you would need at a low monthly rate. Continue reading and learn how you can save hundreds to thousands of dollars annually by joining our Bergen County DPC, with our doctor’s office located in the heart of Ridgewood, New Jersey.Benefits of Working with a Doctor that Doesn’t Take InsuranceI’ve worked as a doctor who takes insurance and I know that these kinds of doctors are limited by what the insurance chooses to pay them. Insurance companies do not pay for phone calls. They often don’t pay for more than a 15 minute visit (including vitals and check-in by office staff). At times, they don’t pay for a visit at all, and a doctor’s office (and you!) are stuck arguing with the insurance company. Recent studies in Insurance Business Magazine shows that doctors spend anywhere from 50-67 percent of their time doing insurance-based paperwork, instead of taking care of their patients. This model is unsustainable and doesn’t offer the kind of care that my patients deserve, and that’s why I left the insurance-based system.In direct primary care, the focus is on the doctor-patient relationship. The doctor (me) does not take insurance and the patient (you) pays a monthly access fee, to ensure that you can reach me or see me when you need me. This helps in two major ways. Not taking insurance lowers a lot of overhead for me—no more money spent paying a billing company to argue with insurance, no more time spent filling out paperwork for the insurance companies to make sure I get paid. The other major way the membership-based model helps the doctor is that it allows me to spend more time with each patient. Taking insurance means I have to see 1500-3000 patients a year. Working out of a DPC model, a full time doctor would see 600 patients. That frees up a lot more time to spend with you, to coordinate your care with specialists, to call you back, to answer your questions, and to not keep you waiting in the waiting room!What you get for your monthly access feeUnlimited visitsUnlimited Phone callsUnlimited textsSee me when you need meGet same day or next day appointmentsHome visits when neededAll primary care costs—visits, calls, texts, stitches, biopsies, EKGs, stress tests—are included in your monthly fee. I also accompany some of my patients to their specialist visits—for a patient who is nervous, or is not sure what questions to ask, or is not sure if they will understand what the specialist is saying. OR, if they just want the moral support. I have found that everyone benefits from this. It is easier for the two doctors (the specialist and myself) to communicate with each other about why a referral was made, it is easier for the patient to get their questions answered and feel heard in the short time that the specialist has to spend as we organize ourselves ahead of time, and then after the visit, I can sit with my patients and discuss what happened so that they can understand it better.