FAQ

We believe model of care must serve the fiduciary relationship between physician and patient. Direct primary care serves that fiduciary relationship by allowing physicians and patients to interact without the disruptive influence of external forces and perverse incentives. In order to fulfill their obligations as healers, DPC physicians commit to making their care accessible to their patients both by pricing memberships affordably (not cheaply) and finding creative means to care for patients who cannot afford the full membership cost. At CCH Partners, we partner with physicians who share this vision of just medicine. Note: A more robust resource discussing ethical considerations in DPC is available upon request. This resource addresses the concern that physicians joining DPC are “leaving their FFS colleagues in the lurch.”

Launching a DPC clinic can take a few months or several years. Much depends on who you partner with to help you launch, how established you want your brick and mortar to be before launch, how you navigate any non-compete clauses, how long you have practiced in your region, and how seasoned you are as a physician. We’d love to connect with you to help you think more about the timing of your journey to just medicine.

Starting a DPC clinic can require as little as no debt financing or as much as >$100k of debt financing depending on your cost of living, savings, access to seed capital from friends and family, risk tolerance, target brick and mortar size, day-one panel size, timeline to scale to a full panel, etc. We are not personal financial advisors, but we’d love to connect with you to help you understand the finances of DPC clinics.

Yes, the dreaded non-compete. As you might suspect, there is no one-size-fits-all in how to deal with non-compete clauses. Thankfully, such clauses are coming under increased scrutiny from policymakers and the courts and may have less force in coming years. For the present, though we are not legal experts, we have connected with legal experts in the area of non-compete litigation to develop a general framework for navigating non-competes. We would love to connect with you to share our research in this area and, as needed, help connect you to those who can provide targeted legal advice on your specific non-compete clause.