Vermont's DPC Movement Is Growing, and Mainstream Media Is Finally Noticing

When Vermont’s largest alt-weekly newspaper runs a feature on direct primary care, it’s worth paying attention. Not because the model needs mainstream validation, but because it signals that DPC has crossed a threshold from niche curiosity to something the general public is starting to hear about.

Seven Days published a feature this week profiling five DPC physicians across Vermont, each running a different style of practice but all anchored in the same core idea: cut out the insurance middleman, charge patients a monthly fee, and actually practice medicine the way you were trained to.

Blue Spruce Health: From One Town to Three

The article’s centerpiece is Blue Spruce Health, a DPC practice founded by Dr. Umair Malik in Newport, Vermont in September 2021. What started as a single-location family medicine practice now spans three offices across the state, with locations in Newport, St. Johnsbury, and Williston. The practice has grown to more than 1,000 patients.

Blue Spruce’s pricing follows a straightforward age-based model: $100/month for patients 26 and under (with an adult member), $150/month for adults 27-59, and $175/month for patients 60 and older, with a one-time $99 registration fee. Couples get 10% off. Families only pay for up to three kids.

What you get is the full DPC package: unlimited in-person and telehealth visits, 24/7 access to your care team via text and phone, annual wellness exams, chronic disease management, urgent care, EKGs, discounted labs, and in-office procedures. Blue Spruce has also added medically-assisted weight loss and hormone evaluation to its offerings.

Dr. Malik’s team now includes a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant with 15 years of experience in functional medicine, and a registered nurse, supported by dedicated operations and outreach staff. That’s the kind of team you can build when you’re not spending half your day on prior authorizations.

Five Doctors, One Model, Different Approaches

What makes the Seven Days piece notable isn’t just the Blue Spruce profile. Reporter Alison Novak interviewed five DPC physicians in different parts of Vermont, each with their own take on the model. The article highlights how DPC isn’t a one-size-fits-all framework. Some practices lean into functional medicine. Others focus on traditional family care. The common thread is the membership model and the time it gives back to both doctors and patients.

The piece also notes that another physician plans to launch a DPC practice in South Burlington this May, suggesting the model’s footprint in Vermont is still expanding.

Seven Days describes DPC as “blue-collar concierge” medicine, a term that captures something the DPC community has been trying to articulate for years: this isn’t boutique healthcare for the wealthy. At $150/month, it’s accessible to working families, especially when you factor in the $0 copays and wholesale pricing on labs and medications.

Why Vermont Matters

Vermont is an interesting test case for DPC. The state has a well-documented primary care shortage, highlighted recently by a VTDigger op-ed questioning where the doctors are in Vermont’s $195 million rural health plan. Vermont’s rural geography, aging population, and shrinking physician workforce create exactly the conditions where DPC can offer something the traditional system struggles to provide: a doctor who knows your name, answers your texts, and isn’t booked six weeks out.

The fact that Blue Spruce grew from one small-town location to three offices across the state in under five years, while accumulating more than 1,000 patients, is a real data point. It suggests that even in a state with a relatively small population, there’s enough demand for the DPC model to sustain multi-location growth.

What This Means

When mainstream media starts profiling DPC practices as a viable alternative to the traditional system, the conversation shifts. It’s no longer just physicians talking to physicians on DPC forums. It’s local news telling everyday patients that there’s a different way to get primary care.

If you’re a physician considering DPC, stories like this are worth bookmarking. Not for the business model validation you already know, but for the patient awareness they generate. Every time a local CBS affiliate or alt-weekly runs a DPC feature, your future patients get one step closer to understanding what you’re offering.

And if you’re already running a DPC practice in a rural market, Blue Spruce’s trajectory from a single Newport office to a three-location, 1,000-patient practice is a useful reference point. It shows that the model works outside of major metros, and that the growth path doesn’t require venture capital or a massive marketing budget. It requires a good doctor, a clear value proposition, and a community that’s tired of the alternative.