DPC News Roundup: Market Projections, a New Orleans Summit, and What Wisconsin Teaches

Market analysts now value the direct primary care sector at nearly $60 billion. Wisconsin’s legislature passed a bill to formalize its legal status and the governor vetoed it. Physicians are registering for New Orleans. Three updates from the past few weeks.

DPC Is Being Tracked Like an Industry

A market sizing report updated in February by InsightAce Analytics put the direct primary care sector at $59.68 billion in 2025. Projection through 2035: $92.46 billion, at a 4.6% annual growth rate.

The report identifies telehealth as the fastest-growing segment within DPC, and North American practices lead global market share by a wide margin. Employer-sponsored DPC dominates the end-user category, reflecting what the Hint Health 2026 Trends Report documented in April: employers now fund the majority of active DPC memberships for the first time.

These figures don’t drive DPC adoption on their own. But large market intelligence firms now model DPC as a distinct sector with its own sizing, segments, and growth curve. That alone signals the industry no longer needs to argue for its own existence.

The 2026 DPC Summit Heads to New Orleans

The annual DPC Summit runs July 16–19 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. Co-hosts this year are the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the DPC Alliance, and the Family Medicine Education Consortium.

Three tracks run through the conference week. Track 101 covers practice launch: finances, legal structure, and early patient acquisition. Track 201 is for established practices focused on staff management and growth. Track 301 is clinical, covering chronic disease management, acute care, and women’s health from a DPC-specific angle.

Attendees can earn up to 23.5 AAFP Prescribed CME credits. Registration is still open at dpcsummit.org. Pre-orders for the summit t-shirt close June 30.

Wisconsin Passed a Bill. It Was Vetoed. The Practices Are Still There.

Wisconsin’s legislature took up DPC-specific legislation in the 2025–2026 session. Senate Bill 4, introduced in January 2025, would have clarified that direct primary care service agreements are contracts rather than insurance plans. It passed the Senate 18–14 on March 18, 2025, and the Assembly concurred on May 13. Governor Tony Evers vetoed it on August 8, 2025, writing that the bill did not include sufficient protections for patients under those agreements against discrimination and loss of access to care. He said he had raised the same concerns about an earlier version. A Senate override attempt failed on May 13, 2026. Assembly Bill 8, the companion measure, was laid on the table the same day the Assembly took up the Senate version, and was formally cleared with the rest of the session’s tabled bills on March 23, 2026.

Neither bill became law. More than 100 DPC practices are operating in Wisconsin anyway.

A January report from Wisconsin Public Radio found demand at DPC clinics picking up sharply as health insurance premiums climbed. Average monthly premiums for 2026 coverage more than doubled for many Wisconsinites. At a Fitchburg clinic, Dr. Wendy Molaska said around 40% of her patients carried no health insurance — people who earn too much to qualify for BadgerCare but don’t get coverage through an employer. They hadn’t left the insurance market. They fell through a gap in it.

DPC is legally operational in all 50 states, regardless of whether a state has passed specific DPC legislation. What those laws typically do is clarify that service agreements between patients and physicians aren’t regulated as insurance, which reduces legal uncertainty for practices and their attorneys. Wisconsin lacks that clarity. Its practices have largely proceeded without it.

What This Means

For physicians watching DPC from a distance, the market projection is one kind of signal: market analysts don’t model niche experiments. They model industries. The summit in New Orleans is the most direct way to see that industry up close, with tracks designed for both physicians who are just starting to research the model and those already running a practice.

And Wisconsin is a useful reminder about how legislation fits into the DPC picture. State bills help clarify the legal environment, but DPC’s growth doesn’t hinge on them. Most states that have enacted DPC legislation did so after practices were already operating. Wisconsin’s story follows the same pattern.

If you’re in a state where DPC legislation hasn’t passed, the main planning question is how carefully you structure your service agreements before opening, and whether your attorney understands DPC law in your jurisdiction. The operating environment is probably friendlier than the legislative calendar suggests.