Frequently Asked Questions
What is direct primary care?
Direct primary care is a membership model of care where you contract directly with your doctor. Simply put, you pay for a monthly membership and your doctor takes care of you.
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The monthly membership at Triangle Direct Care is $80 per month for adults and $40 per month for kids (with an adult membership). This includes primary care services, as well as reduced pricing on lab work, medications, and imaging.
Do you take insurance?
No. We don't take insurance of any kind for our primary care services. We've found that when you take insurance out of primary care, it becomes very affordable. Now, that doesn't mean we are anti-insurance, and we recommend you keep insurance, but save it for the unusual, unexpected, or expensive stuff - i.e. you're hospitalized, you get diagnosed with cancer, you need a brand name medication. You still utilize your insurance for that level of care - like you use insurance in every other walk of life.
What happens after I sign-up?
When you sign-up for our practice here, we contact you directly, schedule you for an appointment, and there we get to know you by reviewing your medical history, medications, and anything important to you. You have access to the doctor via a clinic cell-phone number, e-mail, and patient portal to contact us between appointments or to schedule an appointment.
I already have insurance, why should I pay for a membership too?
Believe it or not, you are already paying twice even with insurance. The first payment is for your health insurance premiums. The second payments comes with every purchase you make that goes toward your health insurance deductible. Employers, individuals, and families are all struggling with skyrocketing insurance premiums. This is causing a trend toward lower-premium, higher-deductible insurance plans. People need value in primary care. They need a way to stretch their healthcare dollar. Direct Primary Care does just that – predictable, low-cost, yet high quality primary care.
What services are covered with a membership?
We're a family medicine practice, so we can do a whole lot:
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Urgent Care (stitches, splinting, wounds, sick visits)
Chronic Care (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol)
Lifestyle Management/Weight management
Women's Medicine
Geriatrics
Pediatrics
Mental Health
Sports Medicine
Routine Physicals
What happens if I need to see a specialist?
We can make referrals to specialists like any other primary care doctor (except if you have an HMO health plan, which requires a primary care "gatekeeper" for referrals). We also have access to specialist eConsults through a program called RubiconMD - which saves us both time and money.
Why a monthly membership?
In the typical primary care practice, your healthcare provider is reimbursed by an insurance company whenever they see you, and ONLY when they sees you. This means that your provider is incentivized to see as many patients through their door that they can - decreasing the time spent with you. It also means that you, the patient, might fear to come to the doctor as you may find that the fees for doing so are unpredictable. You might have that low copay, but what about that lab bill that comes weeks later? Or the cost of that new drug your doctor wants to put you on? Direct Primary Care is different. At Triangle Direct Care, you pay a low monthly retainer. This frees your healthcare provider to do things they wouldn’t be paid to do in the typical practice, like make appointment times of 30-60 minutes, communication by email, phone, or text, and even the ability to diagnose and treat things without the need for an office visit. And no more fear of hidden fees!
I'm still not sure if I want to join, can we talk?
Yes! Call or email us and we'll set up a free, 30-minute consultation to talk about the practice.
How do I sign-up?
Sign-up here or call our office and we'll walk you through the process.
What's the deal with savings on medications and lab work? How does that work?
We are able to offer members of our practice reduced prices on medications and lab work through our accounts with various vendors. We pass these savings directly on to you.
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We will take a look at your medications and if we are able to order them and save money, then we will! We also carry several medications for dispensing directly from our office for sick visits - antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, ointments, etc.
Do you have any sample prices of what you're able to offer?
Yes!
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Sample Lab Work Pricing
CBC - $2.04
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel - $3.86
Hemoglobin A1C - $3.58
Lipid Panel - $5.40
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone - $2.75
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Sample Medication Pricing
Amlodipine 5mg tabs (90 day supply) - $0.63
Amoxicillin 875mg tabs (7 day supply) - $2.24
Azithromycin 250mg tabs (Z-pack) - $2.25
Bactrim DS tabs (7 day supply) - $0.80
Carvedilol 6.25mg tabs (90 day supply) - $4.93
Lisinopril 20mg tabs (90 day supply) - $2.19
Sertraline 100mg tabs (30 day supply) - $1.99
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Do you do home or work visits?
Yes, of course. One of the benefits of not being in the insurance system is that we are able to see if at home or work if it's needed.