Direct Primary Care news, analysis, and insights for physicians.
Five months after the One Big Beautiful Bill made DPC memberships HSA-compatible, Michigan companies are expanding direct primary care offerings and new matching services are launching to meet demand.
Medical Economics, the 100-year-old physician business publication, is devoting its May 12 digital issue entirely to direct primary care. The mainstream framing matters — DPC is being covered as a real career option, not a fringe experiment.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association publicly criticized Direct Primary Care models on local news, even as 2026 premium increases are driving a surge in consumer interest.
A DPC physician argues that practices have real bargaining power with aggregators and employers, and shouldn't act like the smaller party in their own market. The argument matters as more contracts hit physicians' inboxes.
A generational staircase is forming: 10% of boomers, 20% of Gen X, 30% of millennials, and nearly 40% of Gen Z lack a primary care doctor. Urgent care chains are rushing to fill the gap. DPC practices should be paying attention.
Nossaman LLP's new legal primer on membership medicine highlights the critical regulatory differences between DPC and hybrid concierge models that physicians need to understand.
Kyna Fong's back-to-back recognition by Becker's Hospital Review and EY reflects Elation Health's growth to 50,000 clinicians and 24 million patients, and signals that DPC infrastructure is earning mainstream credibility.
TytoCare's AI-powered eardrum analysis earned FDA De Novo classification, creating an entirely new device category. For DPC practices leaning on telehealth, remote diagnostic tools like this expand what's possible without an office visit.
Dr. Samir Qamar, who co-founded one of America's first DPC companies, just launched a free AI health companion that connects to his virtual direct primary care practice.
Medicare's Advanced Primary Care Management codes pay doctors a monthly per-patient fee for 24/7 access and care coordination, mirroring the DPC model at lower rates with more rules.
Women make up 55% of medical school enrollment but face 27% higher burnout and leave medicine years earlier than men. A DPC physician argues the model directly addresses the factors driving them out.
Hint Health's 2026 Trends Report reveals employers now pay for 60% of active DPC memberships, with 837% membership growth since 2017 and stable pricing that traditional insurance can't match.
Rising health insurance costs in Maine are pushing families toward direct primary care and health sharing plans, highlighting growing consumer demand for alternatives to traditional coverage.
A new CMS proposal could waive the 15-year-old ban on physician-owned hospitals for a bundled payment model, signaling a broader shift toward physician autonomy that mirrors DPC's own fight.
A Harvard-led study finds concierge and DPC clinicians grew nearly 80% from 2018-2023, while critics warn the trend worsens primary care shortages for everyone else.
The DPC Alliance's Pediatric DPC Conference 2026 in Savannah sold out with the AAP's past president delivering the keynote, signaling that direct primary care is no longer just an adult medicine story.
As ACA enrollment drops and millions skip premium payments, direct primary care offers an affordable alternative for Americans losing health coverage in 2026.
As direct primary care crosses 1.4 million members and approaches 1% of the U.S. population, the specialist referral gap is becoming the model's most urgent infrastructure problem.
A new Elation Health survey of 280 primary care physicians finds widespread financial anxiety, and independent doctors are already adopting DPC and membership models in response.
Rep. Marie Hopkins' HB7427 would let Rhode Island doctors charge insured patients extra fees alongside traditional care. The framing is primary care access. The mechanism is concierge medicine.
Northwell, University Hospitals, Endeavor Health, and Inova are aggressively expanding concierge medicine programs, validating the membership model but at dramatically higher price points than DPC.
Ultralight, formerly Vibrant Practice, raised $9.3 million to build an AI-native operating system for DPC and cash-pay practices. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is among the investors.
Frontier Direct Care started in a borrowed desk in Harlingen in 2018. Now it operates 11 clinics across Texas, serves 100+ employers, and is expanding to Dallas.
Oklahoma's direct primary care physician count grew from 3-4 to nearly 150 in a decade, mirroring national DPC growth that now serves 1.4 million patients. Here's what's driving it.
Bronze plan enrollment surged 26% in 2026, and HSA-eligible plan selection jumped from 2% to 43% on HealthCare.gov. Combined with the new DPC-HSA compatibility rules, this creates millions of potential patients who can pay for DPC with tax-free dollars.
A new MedCity News analysis maps the four forces competing for control of primary care, and what that battle means for independent DPC physicians.
UberDoc launched a specialty referral program at Hint Summit 2026, giving DPC physicians access to 50+ specialties with upfront pricing and same-week availability.
PartnerMD's 2026 State of Primary Care Report surveyed 500+ patients and found an average experience score of 45/100, with 62% waiting a week or more and 80% worried about health issues slipping through the cracks.
Hint Summit 2026 kicks off April 8 in Nashville with CMS Deputy Administrator Chris Klomp and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist headlining, signaling federal attention on direct primary care.
Rhode Island's AG and House Speaker are sounding alarms about membership medicine draining primary care access. But the pricing they're describing is concierge, not DPC, and that distinction could define the movement's future.
Colorado HB 26-1096 would have let Medicaid recipients pay out of pocket for direct primary care. It passed the House 40-22, but a Senate committee voted 4-3 to postpone it indefinitely.
A Health Affairs study shows DPC and concierge practices nearly doubled from 2018 to 2023, but corporate-affiliated sites grew 576% while independent ownership dropped from 84% to 60%.
Seven Days profiles the growth of direct primary care in Vermont, featuring Blue Spruce Health's expansion to three locations and over 1,000 patients.
Mending, formerly Taro Health, launches Mending Access to connect DPC practices with TPAs and self-funded employers, already covering 100,000 lives across 12 states.
California, Oregon, and at least ten other states are passing laws to restrict private equity control over clinical decisions. The regulatory backlash reinforces what DPC was built to protect: physician autonomy.
A physician's account of seeing 4-6 patients per hour with double bookings shows why the traditional primary care model is breaking, and why a growing number of doctors are choosing a different path.
VITL closed a $7.5M Series A led by SignalFire to build e-prescribing infrastructure for cash-pay clinics, including DPC practices. Here's what it signals about the market.
A new MedCity News analysis warns that DPC's rapid growth could trigger adverse selection in traditional insurance pools. Here's what the data actually shows and what it means for your practice.
Minnesota HF 1724 would establish direct primary care service agreements in state law for the first time, clarifying that DPC is not insurance.
Family Practice Management's March 2026 issue features a step-by-step guide for new graduates launching DPC practices, written by two physicians who did exactly that.
Match Day 2026 set records for primary care positions, but family medicine's declining fill rate signals a pipeline crisis that DPC's autonomy-first model is uniquely positioned to address.
Amazon expanded its Health AI agent to 200 million Prime members, offering $29 virtual visits and AI-powered triage. What this means for direct primary care physicians.
Premise Health and Crossover Health completed their merger on March 12, 2026, creating a 900-center employer primary care network. Here's what it means for independent DPC practices.
Delaware's Senate Bill 1 would force insurers to invest more in primary care and cap hospital prices, exposing why the traditional system keeps failing and why DPC keeps growing.
A major Health Affairs study confirms DPC and concierge practices grew 83% from 2018 to 2023. Here's what that means for physicians considering the switch, and the access challenge the movement hasn't fully reckoned with.
With over 7,200 employers now offering DPC benefits and HSA eligibility barriers falling in 2026, employer-aligned direct primary care is moving from niche experiment to structural shift.
The One Big Beautiful Bill made DPC memberships HSA-compatible starting January 2026. IRS Notice 2026-05 spells out the rules. Here's what every DPC physician needs to understand right now.