The Direct Care Benefits for Employers and Employees
Discover how to tailor your approach to create meaningful partnerships with employers, focused on employee healthcare and wellness.
Partnering with employers is a key strategy for growing your patient panel and your practice. Securing a single contract can open significant opportunities to provide top-quality healthcare to numerous patients.
The way you approach Direct Care Benefits for both Employers plays a significant role in securing new partnerships.
This blog post offers insights into the key benefits of Direct Care, exploring how this approach can lead to (1) Healthier Employees and (2) a Healthier Bottom Line.
Direct Care Benefits for Employers #1: Healthier Employees
Enhancing Employee Health and Offering Personalized Care
Direct Care models emphasize preventative care and wellness. This proactive approach can lead to healthier employees, reducing absenteeism and boosting productivity. Additionally, you can spend more time with each patient, leading to more personalized, patient-centered care, and improving overall employee satisfaction with health benefits.
Dr. Kendrick Johnson, a Family Physician at Ark Family Medicine, a Direct Care Practice partnering with multiple businesses in Arizona, highlights the importance of Direct Primary Care. He believes that it sends a message to employees about their value to their employer by providing them access to quality Primary Care.
“As a side benefit to the employer, employees no longer delay getting care for important problems, and they don't spend excessive time away from work addressing these issues. Employers appreciate this model because it helps attract, engage, and retain the best employees. And I love it because it allows me to take care of patients in the way they deserve.”Dr. Kendrick JohnsonFamily Doctor at Ark Family Health
Direct Care Benefits for Employers #2: Healthier Bottom Line
Providing Cost Efficiency and Price Transparency
The Employee Health Benefits Survey, which gathered responses from 2,133 interviews with private firms, revealed that the annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $23,968 this year, with workers on average paying $6,575 toward their coverage. Under the traditional healthcare system, you know that out-of-pocket expenses often come with surprise medical bills.
In the graphic below, you can see how the costs have increased from 1999 to 2023:
What changes with Direct Care?
There's substantial evidence in medical journals that healthcare providers can prevent and reverse diseases, such as Type-2 Diabetes, cancers, and strokes. And Direct Care places a huge focus on preventive care, often allowing longer appointments with each patient to discuss nutrition, exercise, sleep, and emotional wellness.
By emphasizing preventive care and removing the insurance component, Direct Care often reduces administrative costs associated with healthcare benefits and promotes transparent pricing structures. Employers and employees know the cost of services upfront, removing the unpredictability often associated with healthcare pricing. These are crucial elements to explain to potential employer partners.
Pitching Direct Care to Employers
In the ever-evolving world of healthcare, the concept of Direct Care presents a unique opportunity for employers, yet it remains a largely uncharted territory for many. For Dr. Shane Purcell, founder of Direct Access, the key to successfully pitching DPC to employers lies in a transformative approach, much like how Elisha Otis revolutionized the concept of elevators in the 1850s. Here is a summary of Dr. Purcell's highlights in the video below.
Understanding the Challenge
Employers, CEOs, and business owners often find themselves in a labyrinth when it comes to understanding healthcare systems. The intricacies of insurance and the traditional primary care models are not only complex but also deeply ingrained in their thinking.
The truth is, the healthcare system, with its convoluted insurance mechanisms and fee-for-service models, is as bewildering to them as it is to the general public. This confusion creates a barrier that needs to be addressed through education and reorientation.
The Otis Elevator Analogy
When Elisha Otis invented the safety mechanism for elevators, he didn't just introduce a new product; he changed the entire narrative around vertical transportation. Before Otis, elevators were deemed dangerous and unreliable. Through demonstrations and innovative communication, he shifted the public's perception, showcasing elevators as safe and essential for modern architecture. This paradigm shift is analogous to introducing DPC to employers.
Educating Employers: A Strategic Approach
1. Start with Education
Emphasize that understanding DPC is an educational journey. Employers need to be guided through the nuances of Direct Care and how it differs fundamentally from traditional healthcare models.
2. Highlight the Differences
Clearly articulate how DPC differs from concierge medicine and standard fee-for-service arrangements. Focus on the personalization of care, the cost-effectiveness, and the emphasis on preventive measures.
3. Address the Benefits Directly
Explain how Direct Care can solve many of the problems inherent in the traditional healthcare system, such as the complexity of insurance billing and the lack of personalized care.
4. Use Analogies and Stories
Just like Otis used the analogy of trains for horizontal transportation to explain his vertical elevators, use relatable analogies to explain Direct Care. This helps in simplifying complex concepts and making them more tangible for employers.
5. Showcase the Long-term Benefits
Stress how Direct Care can lead to healthier employees, reduced absenteeism, and overall better productivity. Emphasize that DPC is not just a healthcare model but a long-term investment in employee well-being.
6. Prepare Comprehensive Presentations
Equip yourself with well-thought-out presentations, statistics, case studies, and testimonials that showcase the effectiveness of Direct Care.
Ready to Explore the Key Direct Care Benefits for Employers?
Direct Care offers a promising alternative for employers looking to provide high-quality, cost-effective health benefits. By fostering closer relationships with each employee, employers can not only manage healthcare costs more effectively but also contribute to the overall well-being of their workforce. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, Direct Care presents a forward-thinking solution for employer-provided health benefits.
Check out our other articles to help you partner with employers:
