Speaking at the Senior Summit today, held at Southwest Medical Center, Brian Birdwell, MD announced a new program offered by the Birdwell Ferris Clinic called  “Ferris direct care: It’s about care, not coverage.™” Membership in this direct primary care program ensures full, open access to all clinic services, plus an array of exclusive member services, for a monthly subscription fee.
Known as the “direct primary care” model, this membership-based approach to primary medical care is gaining popularity across the U.S. with more than 100,000 patients now being served by direct care physicians in 24 states, according to the Direct Primary Care Coalition.
At today’s summit, Dr. Birdwell described a worsening crisis in primary medical care for older Americans, caused in part by the inefficiencies of paying for routine and preventive medical care through insurance coverage. Dr. Birdwell said that

  • nationally, the average time between doctor and patient is eight (8) minutes for a primary care encounter, which is inadequate for managing the multiple diagnoses, numerous medications, and complex medical circumstances many seniors experience;
  • insurance coding, billing and collections cost about $50 per doctor-patient encounter.

The direct primary care model eliminates this bureaucratic expense, applying those resources instead to more time for patients and improved quality of care.