A recent medical program offers a stronger relationship with a primary care doctor at a lower price than concierge memberships, with some caveats. Could direct primary care be right for your health and your finances?
Question: I’ve been hearing a lot about direct primary care, and some of my friends’ doctors have switched to this model. How does this work, and should I consider using it?
Answer: If you’d like to have a stronger relationship with your primary care doctor — and quick access to them when you want to chat or schedule an appointment — direct primary care may be worth a look. With a DPC arrangement, you pay a membership fee, and in exchange you get unlimited access to certain primary care services, such as disease screenings, chronic-condition management and laboratory tests. DPC practices don’t accept health insurance, and you pay the membership fee out of pocket.
Compared with a traditional primary care office, which may manage thousands of patients, a DPC practice sees an average of 413 patients, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). With a smaller load, DPC doctors can usually offer same-day or next-day appointments and spend more time with patients. Teresa Lovins, a primary care physician and owner of Lovin My Health DPC in Columbus, Ind., says that she sees patients for an average of an hour, allowing her to discuss their medical concerns in depth. The average primary care appointment lasts about half an hour, according to a 2024 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Direct primary care is similar to concierge care, another membership-based model for primary care. Both involve a relatively small group of patients and focus on personalized services. But concierge memberships often cost more, with the annual tab ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, depending on the services you sign up for, according to consumer website ValuePenguin. That compares with a typical annual cost of $600 to $1,200 for direct primary care, according to the AAFP. Concierge practices usually offer more in-depth physical exams and screenings. And concierge care doctors may bill your health insurance company for certain services.
Although the number of DPC practices has risen to more than 2,700 across the U.S., according to advocacy group DPC Frontier, they’re not available in all areas. You can see whether any DPC practices are near you with online directories including mapper.dpcfrontier.com and dpcalliance.org/find-a-dpc-physician.
Covering the costs of direct primary care
Your DPC membership fee includes the cost of most preventive and primary care services. But you’ll need to have health insurance to get coverage for emergency room visits, care from specialists, surgical procedures and other services your primary doctor does not provide, says Moti Gamburd, chief executive officer of home health care agency CARE Homecare, in Los Angeles.
One option is to use a high-deductible health plan, which offers lower premiums and a larger deductible than a typical policy. If your high-deductible plan is paired with a health savings account, you can set aside pretax money (up to $4,400 for self-only coverage in 2026, or $8,750 for family coverage) in the HSA and use it tax-free for qualifying medical expenses.
Good news on the HSA front for DPC patients: Beginning January 1, 2026, direct primary care membership fees are a qualified medical expense for tax-free HSA withdrawals, thanks to provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. HSA funds may cover up to $150 monthly for individuals, or $300 monthly for a family membership.
Additionally, the law clarifies that enrolling in a direct primary care arrangement does not disqualify someone from being able to contribute to a health savings account if they also have an eligible high-deductible health policy. Previously, DPC patients who had a high-deductible policy could be barred from contributing to an HSA.
Ella Vincent is a staff writer at Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine. For more on this and similar money topics, visit Kiplinger.com.
©2025 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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