A woman wearing gray medical scrubs is sitting on a gray sofa, smiling and engaged in conversation with someone whose hand is visible in the frame. There is a white vase with a plant and a candle on the table in front of her.

Benefits of Direct Primary Care

Wish your doctor would work for you, and not your insurance company?

Our direct care model allows for high-quality, personalized, and accessible care, free from the constraints of insurers. Because we don’t have to waste time on meaningless insurance paperwork, we can spend it where it matters most: with you.

30-90 minute visits & no waiting room

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Unlimited preventive & chronic care mgmt

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Direct access to your doctor

No co-payments or hidden charges

The problem

Insurance-based healthcare isn’t working.

The existing system rewards quantity and assembly line care. It incentivizes doctors to treat diseases rather than promote overall health and prevention. The result is overdiagnosis, overtreatment, inflated costs, and poorer patient outcomes. The healthcare system reduces you to a number and your life to a list of problems that require solving. Your doctor becomes a “provider,” a mere cog in a wheel. All of us are dehumanized, and all of us lose.

A young boy receives a bandage on his arm from a smiling woman, as another woman looks on in a medical setting.

The antidote

Why Direct Primary Care makes sense
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Patient care improves

By reducing bureaucracy, we are free to focus on what we do best. We have more time to investigate health issues thoroughly and find the best treatments. Patients need fewer referrals for specialists, and they can avoid complications that arise from delayed care.

Patient satisfaction skyrockets

With Direct Primary Care, we don’t have to rush through visits with 20+ patients each day. That means that you get more personal time with your doctor. You also get access to your doctor after hours should the need arise. More contact between you and your doctor helps build a more trusting and effective relationship that you just can’t get with a seven-minute visit.

Overall healthcare costs decrease by 20 to 30 percent

Because patients have more access to their doctor and doctors have more time, we can resolve 80 percent of all healthcare needs in the primary care setting. Expensive visits to specialists, urgent care, and the emergency room decrease while overall health and well-being increases. Patients need fewer costly surgeries, medication costs can be streamlined, and labs and imaging costs can be drastically reduced.

Take the first step

Frequently Asked Questions

DPC is an innovative practice model for providing high-quality, high-access primary care at an affordable price. It places the physician-patient relationship at its center. DPC practices offer a full range of primary care services for a flat monthly fee paid directly to your doctor. By opting out of insurance contracts, your doctor is often able to negotiate lower prices for you on labs, imaging and even medications.
Figtree Family Medicine does not accept or bill your insurance. Figtree Family Medicine charges a flat monthly fee which covers most primary care services. Patients should still retain an insurance policy in the event of catastrophic illness or hospitalization. At Figtree Family Medicine we recommend a high deductible insurance plan with a lower monthly premium, as we can offer discounted rates on lab studies, negotiate better cash prices on advanced imaging and help you find more affordable ways to purchase your medications.
Your insurance plans will continue to operate “as usual” at other doctors’ offices, hospitals and pharmacies. Some plans do not require a designated “gatekeeper” doctor for referrals, medications, tests, and the like, so Figtree Family Medicine can order those services as needed just as any other doctor would do. Some HMO-style plans do require an “in-network” primary care doctor for access to other services, so these plans do not pair as well with membership at Figtree Family Medicine. Please check with your insurance company. If you do have an HMO plan, you can still work with a DPC doctor, but please contact us to learn how.
- Your annual physical exam
- Up to 36 visits per year without copays
- Same-day or next-day appointments during business hours
- Access to Dr. Schulman via cell phone, text and email
- Video visits through our secure EMR or via FaceTime, etc.
For a full list of covered services, please visit our Pricing page.
In a traditional primary care practice, doctors are compensated based on how they code and the quantity of patients they see, rather than based on the quality of care that they provide. In a DPC practice, quality of care is the number one priority. By cutting down on the panel size of patients from approximately 2000 patients to 300-500 patients, doctors working in a DPC practice are able to spend additional time with patients; patients have easier access to appointment times that meet scheduling needs; patients are guaranteed to see their doctor, not another “provider”; patients are able to reach out to their doctor via email and cell phone. These are just some of the benefits of a DPC practice.
The hope is that by spending more time with your primary care physician, the need to refer you to a specialist will decrease significantly. However, in the event that you do need to be referred to a specialist, Dr. Schulman will help arrange for an appointment and will work to expedite this if indicated. Dr. Schulman continues to work closely with local specialists and those affiliated with BILH. You may see any specialist you like.
At Figtree Family Medicine, we accept patients that are on Medicare; however, we do not bill Medicare, nor can the patient bill Medicare for primary care services that we provide. Medicare will still cover any laboratory testing, imaging, medications, referrals to specialists, and hospitalizations.
Your primary care doctor is the person who puts it all together. Your primary care office should be your medical home. Medicine has become siloed, care outsourced to multiple specialists, each who treat one disease or body system. Specialists often fail to communicate with each other, and frequently with their patients. The left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. With a direct primary care doctor, you have a trusted captain to help steer your ship.
Everyone benefits from a service tailored directly to them. That’s why we offer truly custom primary care. Our practice is devoted to the maintenance of your good health and total well-being.
New memberships are offered periodically on a rolling basis as panel composition allows.