From NBC News:
What was a niche aspect of medical care just a few years ago has exploded to thousands of practices across the country. In direct primary care, medical providers don’t take insurance.
Instead, their patients pay a monthly subscription fee. In exchange they get easier access, longer appointments, and continuity of care from the same provider.
Bangor Daily News reported that “the insurance-free, subscription-based direct primary care model has exploded in Maine and across the U.S. in recent years as patients and providers alike become disillusioned with the state of health care.”
Judi Pimental, a family nurse practitioner, made the switch, explaining that the current system is not “really patient-centered.” Pimental left a large practice to open Trinity Direct Primary Care.
“I’m excited about being a patient-centered clinic,” she said.
During a normal office visit, a patient may have a total of 20-minutes of actual car, and half of that is typically spent with the nurse. The remaining time with the provider, 8 to 12 minutes, isn’t enough to deal with chronic conditions.
Not so with direct primary care.
From Bangor Daily:
Direct primary care is built around that patient-first ideal. The model sells itself on longer visits and greater access to your primary care provider, who is not strapped with the quotas and rigid schedules that burden traditional providers.
That’s because most practices, like Pimental’s, do not bill insurance. Patients instead pay a flat monthly fee for access to most things typically offered under the primary care umbrella without the surcharges added in the traditional “fee-for-service” model. For Trinity DPC, that fee will be $89 a month for individuals or $159 for couples.
“I don’t think anyone was hindering me at my employer’s, but red tape hinders you when they’ve got a quota to meet and the insurance companies have their bottom line,” Pimental said. “I’m looking forward to cutting loose from that bottom line and actually making sure I’m worried about what [the patient] needs.
“When you don’t have the time to really dissect what’s going on with the patient, it’s not just frustrating for the patient, it’s frustrating for the provider as well,” Pimental said. “I left primary care because I felt like I wasn’t able to do the job that I really wanted to do.”
In a report on NBC News, this new way of practicing is explored as, potentially, the future of medicine. The network’s Anne Thompson reports on a doctor and his patients, who all say it’s a better way to practice medicine.
Medical industrial complex https://t.co/NBsnJRzfcv
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 27, 2025
Read more at NBC News
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
