Plum Health DPC

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What Payroll Option Should I use for my Direct Primary Care Practice?

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Payroll for your direct primary care practice can be scary - for most doctors who start a direct primary care practice, this is the first time paying themselves and it’s their first time paying employees.

But, don’t be scared any more! By the time you finish this blog post, you will have a good idea of how to pay your employees in a reasonably easy way.

All the options

There are several payroll options available for small business owners, including:

  1. Manual Payroll: This involves calculating and processing payroll manually using spreadsheets or paper-based systems. While this option is low-cost, it can be time-consuming and prone to errors. I strongly recommend against doing this. Your time is WAY better spent taking care of patients or growing the business. Unless you have a background in accounting, do not do this.

  2. Payroll Software: Payroll software can automate the payroll process, including calculating wages, taxes, and deductions. There are several software options available, ranging from simple and low-cost solutions to more advanced platforms with additional features such as time-tracking and benefits administration.

    One example of a payroll software is Gusto. Gusto offers a cloud-based payroll platform that automates the payroll process. It includes features such as direct deposit, tax calculations, and benefit administration. Gusto also offers time-tracking and HR features, such as onboarding and document management. Small business owners can choose from several pricing plans based on the number of employees and the features they need. Payroll software like Gusto is a good option for small businesses that want to streamline their payroll process and have more control over the payroll function.

  3. Online Payroll Services: Online payroll services provide a cloud-based platform for managing payroll. These services often offer features such as direct deposit, tax filing, and time-tracking. Online payroll services are typically easy to use and affordable, making them a popular choice for small businesses.

    An example of an online payroll service is ADP. ADP offers a cloud-based payroll platform that provides payroll processing, tax filing, and compliance management. ADP also offers HR features such as time and attendance tracking, employee benefits, and talent management. Small business owners can choose from several pricing plans based on the number of employees and the features they need. Online payroll services like ADP are a good option for small businesses that want a simple and easy-to-use payroll solution, without having to invest in additional software or hardware.

    Options 2 and 3 have some overlap because Gusto can be completed online (without downloading a software suite). Other companies that offer payroll software include QuickBooks, PayChex, Xero, and others.

  4. Accountant or Bookkeeper: Small business owners can also outsource payroll to an accountant or bookkeeper. These professionals can handle all aspects of payroll processing, including calculating wages, taxes, and deductions. While this option can be more expensive than other options, it can provide peace of mind and ensure compliance with tax laws and regulations.

  5. Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs): PEOs are third-party companies that manage HR and payroll functions for small businesses. They offer a range of services, including payroll processing, benefits administration, and compliance management. PEOs can be a good option for small businesses that need comprehensive HR services. If you want to completely outsource payroll and benefits, you’d use an option like this. i don’t know any DPC doctor who uses something like this, as larger businesses would use this option.

It's important for direct primary care doctors to consider their specific needs and budget when selecting a payroll option. They should also consult with a financial professional or tax expert to ensure compliance with tax laws and regulations.

What we use at Plum Health DPC for Payroll

When I started my DPC practice and hired my first employee, I had a really hard time with this. It was more of a mental barrier than anything. I ended up picking Gusto because they have a really nice user experience/design on their website.

I ran payroll for a year using this, but my account found that Gusto was NOT paying my taxes accurately, so we had to put some extra money in at the end of the year. After discovering this, we switched to “RunPayroll”, an online-based platform. I now submit payroll via RunPayroll and my accountant checks on it quarterly.

I pay $62 monthly for accounting, $250 quarterly to my accountant for them to review my books and make sure that all of my expenses are categorized perfectly, and about $1,800 annually for tax preparation for myself and for my business.

DO I NEED A PAYROLL COMPANY IF I’M THE ONLY EMPLOYEE?

Usually you don’t need a payroll company if you’re the only employee in your direct primary care practice. Once you hire another doctor or a medical assistant, you’ll need to set up an account with a payroll company so that they can help you keep track of payroll taxes.

If you’re a solo doc and if you have an accounting software like Quickbooks, you can pay yourself through an owner’s draw. This is a simple way of paying yourself when you’re just starting out.

When you take an owner’s draw, you should set aside 40% of that owner’s draw for taxes. You will likely pay 25% to 35% of your Net Operating Income in taxes, so be mindful of these numbers. Your accountant should be able to calculate the amount of taxes that you need to pay each quarter.

With quarterly income taxes, you will mail up to three checks to your city, state, and the federal government from the money you make during that period. Here in Detroit, Michigan, we have city taxes paid each quarter (about $125) and state taxes paid each quarter (maybe $1,250). This is usually an estimate. If you over estimate, you could get money back during tax time or have a small tax bill. If you under estimate, you could owe a larger balance during tax time.

I hope this was helpful, and best of luck with your DPC practice!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC in Detroit, Michigan.

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Marketing Your Direct Primary Care Practice

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how to market your direct primary care practice

Today I got a wonderful email from a 3rd year resident who wants to start a DPC practice right out of residency. This is commendable! and echoes what I did as a doctor starting a DPC right after residency completion.

He took our Startup DPC course on Writing a Business Plan and his big ask was as follows: “I wrote this long piece of content, what do you think?”

Overall, the content he wrote was good! It explained his ethos and the ethos of his clinic. But, I told him that one piece of content doesn’t move the needle. I asked him:

“can you consistently make a new piece of content each week, every week, for 5 years? That's the real question. I usually spend about 1 hour each week creating a piece of content to support my DPC practice. This consistency is what draws new members to our practice. It's nice to have a short video or blog post that explains your ethos, but can you create a new piece of content each week?”

How to consistently create content

The best way to consistently create content is to take photos of the work you do in your clinic and to take photos of the work you do in the community. Family photos and hyperlocal content does well also.

You should always be thinking about content creation and trying to capture the moments that visually explain what you do in your DPC practice and how you do it and what it means for the community. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Now, take those pictures, add a caption and post them to your favorite social media channels. I use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok most often, in that order. If you can create an engaging piece of content every month, you will have great success with your marketing efforts for your Direct Primary Care practice.

Examples from Plum HEalth DPC

Here are some examples from my business, Plum Health DPC, from the last 4 months of 2022: 

6 years in business: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmt81PZL3JB/

Influenza A updates: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmXKf6OvMsu/

House call medicine: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWl_TrvCC3/ 

Passing of a community physician, friend, and mentor: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClHXhYXvSBa/

Volunteering at a health fair: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjdM4ytL-g3/ 

Teaching other physicians about DPC: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjYJKr_L3Ka/ 

Talking about healthy foods in Detroit: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjBfbA0P7qz/ 

Laceration repair: https://www.instagram.com/p/CiA-KN6O7Or/

Here are a few more blog post ideas for your direct primary care practice:

  1. The benefits of direct primary care for patients

  2. Why you decided to start your direct primary care practice

  3. The differences between direct primary care and traditional primary care

  4. The role of technology in direct primary care (texting patients, emailing patients, video chats with patients)

  5. The importance of preventive care in direct primary care (how you have more time to address preventive medicine issues)

  6. Direct primary care and the opioid crisis (how you can help your patients manage pain more effectively with multiple modalities, rather than with a pill)

  7. Direct primary care and mental health

  8. The impact of direct primary care on healthcare costs

  9. The future of direct primary care

  10. Success stories from patients in a direct primary care practice

Good luck! and keep writing! It helps to keep your audience engaged and it helps to grow your practice when your community knows about you and your ethos.

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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How Does Direct Primary Care Make Sense from a Numbers Perspective?

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How Does Direct Primary Care Make Sense from a Numbers Perspective?

Lots of people want to know how direct primary care makes sense for doctors from a numbers and earnings perspective. This came up on Twitter today and I was mentioned in one of the responses. Here’s the original question:

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how DTC healthcare can make $ bc the margins are low. The only way it makes sense to me is if you expect low utilization of services, whereby an ongoing retainer (subscription) is not redeemed often or pt requires very little management.

I responded with the following:

we use a membership model for health care - we take care of about 450 patients per doctor and charge about $60 monthly. A family doctor can make a typical salary if they keep their overhead low. I love DPC and we’re able to serve an HPSA in SW Detroit with our clinic

I added the following:

I have about 450 patients - I see my patients 3 - 4 times each year on average. I see about 4 - 8 patients in a typical work day. Our #PlumHealth clinic is in SW Detroit and we serve an underserved community with affordable and accessible healthcare #directprimarycare #detroit

Thanks for reading and watching, and have a great day.

-Paul Thomas, MD with Startup DPC

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Which electronic medical record system do you use for your direct primary care practice?

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Which electronic medical record system do you use for your direct primary care practice?

We use ATLAS MD EMR or electronic medical record system. There are a lot of pros to using ATLAS, for both patients and doctors. In this video I answer a question that was emailed to me this week:

We have chosen Atlas.md as our EMR due to the payment integration and ease of use. I see that you also use Quickbooks and Atlas.md.

My questions are:

  • Do you do any sort of integration to get your financial data (income) out of Atlas and into QB? Do you use the Desktop or Online version of QB?

  • Do you use the Atlas Phone/SMS integration for interacting with patients?

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Reviews for Dr. Paul Thomas at the DPC Summit 2021

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Dr. Paul Thomas at the DPC Summit 2021

On July 17th, 2021, Dr. Paul Thomas presented at the DPC Summit 2021, hosted by the American Academy of Family Physicians. It was a phenomenal, and well-attended event, and it was an honor to be a part of it and presenting at such an important conference.

The presentation focused on branding and marketing for direct primary care doctors. Family doctors are not taught how to promote themselves or their work in a meaningful way. This presentation focuses on how to do just that, and how to attract new patients to a family medicine practice. It focuses on leveraging social media channels, search engine optimization, and social media.

Paul Thomas, MD presenting at the DPC Summit 2021 hosted by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Reviews for Dr. Paul Thomas at the DPC Summit 2021

Dr. Paul Thomas’ session at the DPC Summit 2021 hosted by the American Academy of Family Physicians received high reviews for the effectiveness, clarity, organization, and subject knowledge of the presentation. Dr. Thomas’ presentation focused on Branding and Marketing for Direct Primary Care Doctors.

Here are some of the reviews for Dr. Paul Thomas’ presentation at the DPC Summit 2021:

  • This is consistently one of the best presentations that provides the most relevant content for the doctor just starting out their DPC practice. I would recommend this particular session for anyone before they decide on a name, even, as the information provided about that simple (not so simple) decision can make the rest of marketing, branding, etc. even easier.

  • Dr. Thomas was excellent as always! Gained a lot of insight into how to run social media with a DPC practice. Wow, that guy has energy. wondering when he has time to do any patient care with all that energy in marketing. If I decide to do this I will definitely use his information as a resource.

  • Enthusiasm and clear joy in practice was inspiring -- appreciate the broad overview of the basics that go in to branding as well as the resources shared

  • Dr. Paul, your book is great! Would like to visit you/your practice before I start my own DPC in California on 2022.

  • Wow, I learned so much from this. I feel like I know so little. This was wonderful

  • Really great speaker with passion.

  • Outstanding marketing info. Great principles. I'll be studying this!

  • Wonderful lecture for options and guidance on marketing

  • Such a great talk- thank you! | Enjoyed the book | Wonderful presentation!

Dr. Paul Thomas’ session at the DPC Summit 2021 hosted by the American Academy of Family Physicians received high reviews for the effectiveness, clarity, organization, and subject knowledge of the presentation. Dr. Thomas’ presentation focused on Branding and Marketing for Direct Primary Care Doctors.

You can see the full agenda for the DPC Summit, here: http://www.dpcsummit.org/agenda.html

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How Much Money Will You Make in Your Direct Primary Care Practice?

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How Much Money Will You Make in Your Direct Primary Care Practice?

Doctors want to know how much money they’ll make when they start a direct primary care practice. This question came up in the Direct Primary Care Facebook Group. You can join it, here.

Here’s the question in full:

I’ve been looking into doing a DPC practice, however the numbers don’t make sense to me. If I charge a patients $100 a month for unlimited visits, as well as access to email and phone calls. so if I sign up 500 patients that’s $600000 a year. Taking out overhead I’m left with $400,000. But with unlimited visits that encourages pts to constantly come in and makes fir a busy practice and on top of it I’m doing emails and phone calls after hours and after taxes maybe taking home $250,000. Is this correct or am I missing something ? Is there a way to charge for visits in addition to the monthly fee ? Do you drop all insurances when you are dpc?

Here’s my answer:

Well, there’s a lot there.

First, if you’re doing it for the money, then this may not be the right path for you.

Second, there are so many intangible benefits to running a successful DPC practice, like more time with patients, greater autonomy and satisfaction with your practice of medicine.

Third, because you only have 500 patients, not 2,400 like a typical doctor, you see 5x’s fewer patients each day, leading to less stress and more time with your patients.

Fourth, your overhead is super high - there are ways to deliver excellent care at a lower cost than what you’re projecting.

I explain the ethos of this movement in great detail in my book and I give a ton of practical pointers there as well:

https://www.startupdpc.com/books

#StartupDPC

The my response was followed up with a follow-up question:

But overhead is related to where you practice so if you practice in an expensive area the rents will be expensive and people expect higher pay

To which I responded:

yes, that's true, but I think that's a smaller piece of the puzzle than you perceive it to be. In my experience monthly rent is a big expense, but just 5% of our current monthly revenue, so in no way is it the biggest expense. Plus, when you scale up and hire more doctors, the relative cost of your rent becomes much less.

STARTUP DPC - DIRECT PRIMARY CARE MASTER CLASS

Because there are no in-person conferences this year, we are hosting an intimate gathering of Direct Primary Care doctors who are looking to start and grow their DPC practices. We did this last year, and it was a rousing success! Join our Direct Primary Care Master Class on May 14th through May 15th, 2021 at our Plum Health DPC office in Detroit, Michigan and accelerate your growth as a DPC doctor.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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Direct Primary Care Practice Featured on PBS

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Direct Primary Care Practice, Plum Health, Featured on PBS

Earlier this month, Plum Health DPC was featured on PBS. The show details the staff and operations of Plum Health DPC. Here’s what PBS said about Plum Health DPC:

Dr. Paul Thomas knew what he wanted to do with his life since the age of 17. After completing medical school, residency and a short stint at an Urgent Care facility, he founded Plum Health. Plum Health offers direct primary care services based on a subscription model. Rather than charge patients for each visit, patients pay a set fee each month, gaining direct access to doctors as needed.

Why Traditional Media Engagement Matters

If you’re a direct primary care doctor and starting your own DPC practice, traditional media engagement can be like jet fuel for growing your practice. Traditional media is any form of mass communication available before the advent of digital media. This includes television, radio, newspapers, books, and magazines. The audiences for these platforms are vast, but not well targeted. Yet, engagement here can still be very powerful.

In my book, Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice, I how to get on TV, and I’ve included those passages below:

If you want to be interviewed on Television, you’ve got a bit of work to do. First, by being interviewed on podcasts frequently, you’ll have the same speaking skills that will be transferrable from the radio or podcast medium to the television medium.

Second, you can practice speaking into a camera by filming yourself each week. Yes, you can film yourself weekly doing a show on your YouTube channel about any topic that you desire. Try to look into the camera and tell a story about an interesting patient, an interesting new development in medicine, or the progress you’ve made in your clinic, like a new hire or a new piece of equipment or even a new test or treatment that you’re offering.

Again, you’re working out your own rough spots, so that when you appear on camera you look polished and professional. In this regard, you will want to look your best each day, so keep up with your personal grooming. Some doctors get last-minute calls to appear on Television or the Local News as a credible authority, so make sure you have a clean white coat handy.

Action steps: If your goal is to be featured on the news in your town or city, get camera ready. Start creating content on your YouTube channel on a weekly basis. You can interview interesting people in your town on health-related topics or you can talk about topics you’re passionate about. Make sure you have professional attire on hand at your office, perhaps a clean white coat and a freshly pressed top or blazer on a hanger at your office.

From there, I go on to describe how doctors can engage with the media by building relationships, interacting on social media, and sending press releases. Of course you can pick up a copy of the book, or check out our course that delves into this topic for more information.

STARTUP DPC - DIRECT PRIMARY CARE MASTER CLASS

Because there are no in-person conferences this year, we are hosting an intimate gathering of Direct Primary Care doctors who are looking to start and grow their DPC practices. We did this last year, and it was a rousing success! Join our Direct Primary Care Master Class on May 14th through May 15th, 2021 at our Plum Health DPC office in Detroit, Michigan and accelerate your growth as a DPC doctor.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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What is Direct Primary Care? Q & A with Physician Estate

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This is Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC and Startup DPC. I received a long list of questions about Direct Primary Care from Physician Estate and I'll do my best to answer all of them here!

The Background of Paul Thomas, MD and Plum Health DPC

1. Please tell us a bit about your personal story, growing up, and medical training.

I really answer this fully in my first book, Direct Primary Care: The Cure for Our Broken Healthcare System. But briefly, I started my journey in medicine by volunteering at a local free clinic. I loved working with patients. But, by the end of my residency, I found that I had less and less time with my patients. I needed to find a way to practice medicine on my own terms and for the benefit of my patients.

I also talk about this in my TEDXDetroit talk, here:

2. What made you develop interest in Direct Primary Care? Motivating factors? Did you pursue any formal education/training that focuses on Direct Primary Care? If so, what was it?

By the end of my residency, I was spending less time with my patients, and I didn’t want to participate in or perpetuate the dysfunctional health insurance system of healthcare delivery. So, I wrote a business plan and started my own direct primary care practice, Plum Health DPC in Detroit Michigan.

About Plum Health - A Direct Primary Care Platform

3. What is Plum Health? As a platform that specializes in Direct Primary Care practice, what is its unique value proposition? Tell us the story behind its creation.

Our unique value proposition is the amount of time and the amount of value that we can give to each of our patients. In a fee-for-service system that emphasizes speed and allows doctors and patients to have less time with one another, Plum Health DPC stands out in it’s ability to cultivate the physician-patient relationship.

4. Generally, how do you help educate physicians in the US who are interested in starting their own Direct Primary Care practice? Do you provide any services, courses, coaching, etc? Challenges and Milestones in Your Direct Primary Care Practice

I’ve been a speaker at the AAFP DPC Summit and at the D4PC Foundation Nuts and Bolts Conference. Because of these prominent speaking opportunities, I’ve been sought out by other doctors to help them start and grow their DPC practices. I’ve consulted with individuals and I have some courses and resources on this website to help my aspiring DPC colleagues. I’ve also written the book Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice, which has helped hundreds of doctors in their direct primary care journey.

5. What are some of the mistakes you made when you were still starting out with your Direct Primary Care practice? If you had to redo the whole journey, what would you do differently?

Early on, I made the mistake of doing everything myself. I should have hired a medical assistant sooner and I should have hired a second doctor sooner. Hiring other people has helped me serve more people in our community with excellent primary care services.

6. Share a few special milestones you achieved in your Direct Primary Care journey.

There are many milestones that we’ve reached along the way. During my journey, I’ve hired people, I’ve built out a larger office in my community dedicated to lowering the cost of health care, and we’ve grown our medical practice to serve more people.

7. How do you see Direct Primary Care evolving over the next 5-10 years? How does the political climate and ever so polar political opinions affect the evolution of DPC?

Direct primary care will continue to grow and thrive as long as direct primary care doctors continue to go above and beyond for their patients. This looks like solving difficult problems for your patients every day.

Direct Primary Care vs. Traditional Fee-for-Service

This section is for patients and doctors that are not yet aware of DPC

8. In a nutshell, what do you think is the major difference of Direct Primary Care practice vs. Traditional fee-for service?

The biggest difference is the time that doctors and patients have together. The next biggest difference is that the doctor is actively trying to solve problems for their patients and lower the cost of health care for their patients.

9. Why should a patient consider enrolling in a Direct Primary Care practice over the traditional fee-for-service?

People choose Plum Health and direct primary care services like Plum Health because they have more time with their doctors and easy access to their physicians via texts, phone, calls, and emails. They also have $0 copays for visits, and they can save 50% to 90% on labs, medications, and imaging services.

10. If you are explaining about Direct Primary Care to a layman who doesn’t have a medical background, what would be your 2-minute explanation to make him/her understand Direct Primary Care practice?

I would tell them something like this (our winning pitch at the Detroit Demo Day, where we won $50,000 for the buildout of our new, larger office in Corktown, Detroit):

What are your Favorite Direct primary Care REsources?

11. Favorite book that talks about Direct Primary Care; and favorite book in general about any topic

Well, my favorite book about direct primary care is my newest book - Startup DPC. One of my favorite books in general is CRUSH IT! by Gary Vaynerchuck.

12. As someone who is an advocate of Direct Primary Care practice, what are your favorite resources for Direct Primary Care?

13. Favorite bloggers that have the same passion as you when it comes to Direct Primary Care 14. Favorite quote

Tips for Physicians Who Are Planning to Start Their Own Direct Primary Care Practice

15. Many physicians find it challenging to start their own Direct Primary Care practice. As someone who’s been in the Direct Primary Care business for quite some time now, what do you think physicians should first do when they are starting out? Any tips and/or strategies you highly recommend?

On Investments

16. Tell us a bit about your investment strategies. Do you invest your savings? If so, what are your favorite asset classes? Do you max out on your retirement accounts? Since you own your practice, do you utilize solo 401k?

Final Thoughts on Direct Primary Care Practice

17. This is an open ended question. Please feel free to share your closing thoughts.

18. For physicians who are looking for great resources on Direct Primary Care - What is the best way for them to get in touch with you?

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The Direct Primary Care Book is The #1 New Release

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Today’s a very exciting day! Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has hit number 1 on Amazon under the Physician category.

Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has hit number 1 on Amazon under the Physician category.

Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has hit number 1 on Amazon under the Physician category.

Additionally, the book has garnered some amazing reviews so far. Here’s the top review:

Dr. Thomas has a wealth of knowledge from his experience starting and running a highly successful DPC practice. This book, his previous book, and his online courses are all extremely helpful resources for physicians to start their own DPC practice to provide better, more affordable care to patients.

The next review came from Kendrick:

This book is more than just one guys thoughts about starting a DPC practice. Dr. Paul has been advocating purpose driven business for years. If you have a goal of making money with a successful DPC practice you may or may not find that brings you happiness or fulfillment. Dr. Paul's discussion fo the concept of ikigai could change your life if you are open to it.

The practical stuff is here too. You could follow this recipe for a practice like his and have something you could really be proud of in the end. But inevitably, you're going to be adding in your own ingredients and the recipe here becomes not a restriction but a great base to start with.

I honestly can't believe what Dr. Paul has accomplished. He and I started practices at the same time and if I were the comparing type, I'd feel bad about myself. Instead, I'm choosing just to be inspired.

Sincerely thank you for the kind words Kendrick, I really appreciate you.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Startup DPC, you can do so here.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day! - Dr. Paul Thomas

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What are the Ages of the Patients in Your Direct Primary Care Practice?

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How Old Are the Patients in Your Direct Primary Care Practice?

A question that comes up frequently is how old are the patients that populate your direct primary care practice? I have been asked this question several times by reporters, medical students, prospective direct primary doctors, and fellow direct primary care colleagues.

In this blog post and the accompanying video, I tackle this question head on! First of all, I am a primary care physician and a family medicine doctor, and that means that I take care of patients of all ages and stages. All patients are welcome at our practice regardless of age.

Currently, our youngest patient is two months old and our oldest patient is 102 years old. That being said the majority of our members at Plum Health DPC are between the ages of 20 and 65 years. 

I think there are a number of factors at play that cause the majority of our patients to be in that demographic.

First of all, we are a primarily urban practice, and we take care of several young urban professionals who are highly mobile and without children. Detroit and Southeast Michigan has a strong economic output, that attracts top talent to the region in various professions like law, medicine, automotive engineering, and others. Perhaps we would have more pediatric patients if we were in a suburban community where there are more children and families.

Second, I am 32 years old and I primarily use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn to market my direct primary care practice. These social media platforms typically have users that are my age. Facebook may skew a little bit older, and Instagram may skew a little bit younger in terms of age, but whenever I post on their social media platforms, the audience is primarily within my age demographic.

Third, the people that I know trust me and are more likely to become my patients. The people that I know are mostly my age, plus or minus a few years. That probably skews our data or the number of patients in our practice who are around the age of 32 somewhat. I’d be willing to wager that if you sought out a direct primary care doctor who is 45 years of age, they will likely have the majority of patients around their age, especially if they are marketing to them using social media channels in which they have the most contacts and connections in their own age demographic.

Fourth, our country provides health insurance coverage for people under age 26 through the affordable care act. As long as a child’s parents have health insurance, that child will be covered under their parents’ health insurance plan. Also, those individuals over 65 are covered by Medicare, and because they may be on a fixed income they may be less inclined to seek out a direct primary care practice where they have to pay over and above their Medicare coverage.

In this image, each individual orange line represents an individual patient, and you can see that we have one patient who is 102 years old. What is somewhat confusing about this image is that we have roughly 6 patients who are between the age of zer…

In this image, each individual orange line represents an individual patient, and you can see that we have one patient who is 102 years old. What is somewhat confusing about this image is that we have roughly 6 patients who are between the age of zero and one year of age, and they have no lines to represent them but there is a small gap between the Y access of the chart and the one-year-olds. That gap represents the 0 year olds.

In the above image, each individual orange line represents an individual patient, and you can see that we have one patient who is 102 years old. What is somewhat confusing about this image is that we have roughly 6 patients who are between the age of zero and one year of age, and they have no lines to represent them but there is a small gap between the Y access of the chart and the one-year-olds. 

Thank you so much for reading and watching, I truly appreciate all of you who are taking the time to learn more about direct primary care!

If you live in the Detroit area and he would like to become a patient of our direct primary care practice, you can find out more on our website, www.plumhealthdpc.com

If you are a direct primary care doctor and you’re ready to up your game, to attract more patients, and to grow your direct primary care practice, take a look at the other materials on our website, specifically the courses on our take action page. 

Thanks again for reading and watching, - Dr. Paul Thomas