Another Real-World Example of Saving Money with DPC

Last week I had a new patient who came to me from a traditional insurance-based practice. She was tired of not being able to get through to her physician, and having to wait months for an appointment for a routine problem. These are typical reasons people decide to check out Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices like Nexus Primary Care.

Discussion drifted to finances. Spending $150 per month on a doctor was a tough choice for her. She has all the same bills that everyone has, and her insurance premiums are already expensive. But in the end it seemed worth it for her and so she signed up. If nothing else, she reasoned, she’d give it a couple of months and get her health in better shape.

By the end of the visit, she was only spending $50 net per month. And it wasn’t because she talked me into giving her a big discount. How did we accomplish this?

The answer is simple: prescription drugs

We went through a review of her medications and found that she was spending far too much on them. Sure, there were a couple of brand name medicines that we could easily switch to generics. But more importantly, we discovered that she was spending a lot on generic medications that she didn’t need to spend.

Lately I’ve been aggressively moving patient prescriptions to an online pharmacy, Cost Plus, started by the billionaire tycoon Mark Cuban (yes, the Shark Tank guy). Their model is very simple. They transparently publish their own acquisition cost for the medication, and then add a flat 15% to that cost, plus a pharmacy processing fee.

Let’s take a look at sertraline, a very common antidepressant. GoodRx lists their cheapest coupon price as $22/month for the 100 mg tablet for 30 days. Cost Plus, on the other hand, lists sertraline at $8.10 for 90 days, which translates to $2.70/month. That’s nearly a 90% reduction, almost $20 in savings per month for that single medication.

Their service is simple for us to use:

1. Sign up for a patient account (5 minutes, one time only)

2. I send in the prescription (1 minute)

3. The patient clicks a button to have the prescription delivered (1 minute)

4. The prescription shows up at the patient’s door

To me, this is not only less expensive, but also a lot more convenient. I don’t know about you, but dealing with the big chain pharmacies is really frustrating to me. The less I have to deal with them, the better.

Instances where local pharmacies are still the best option

There are a few times when this doesn’t work. Here are a few circumstances when a local pharmacy is better (for now):

• When the medication is a controlled substance (like many ADHD medications, and some hormone therapies)

• When the medication is for a short and limited course, like antibiotics for pneumonia or steroids for asthma

• When the medication needs to be from a compounding pharmacy for people with specific dosing or allergy requirements

• For brand-name medications — these are my Kryptonite; there just isn’t a lot I can do about the cost of these, and the drug manufacturers know it. Luckily most of the medicines we use have generic alternatives.

I have confidence that if it’s possible to fix it, some company will find a solution.

Better healthcare, and better value

My point here isn’t that Cuban is a genius, but rather that if we take some time to do a little work, we can find savings for our patients.

Back to my patient that I started this post with. We reviewed her medications together and found a few that were way cheaper from Cost Plus than from her local pharmacy. We saved her more than $100 per month. Now it’s like she’s only spending $50/month on a DPC membership, which is a heck of a deal!

For more examples of how DPCs can give you better value, and provide a better healthcare experience, here are some other examples:

I’d love to have you as a patient here. We can take some time to go through your medications and determine ways you can save some money. Give us a call and become a patient today!