LOW COST, PERSONAL CARE
Physician setting up direct-care clinic to forge better relationships with patients
Kirsten Lin went to medical school, specialized in family medicine and worked for hospital systems for about 10 years before getting fed up.
“I thought, I can’t keep doing what I’m doing,” the 37-year-old Dr. Lin said. “I was being encouraged to see a patient or two every 15 minutes. I said, let’s take a plunge.”
The plunge was Dr. Lin’s decision to open a clinic that offers a low cost, more personal alternative to health care called direct primary care. She believes it will be medicine the way medicine is supposed to be practiced, and it’s an idea that is catching on nationwide as consumers and doctors look for a better doctor-patient relationship with a healthier future.
Dr. Lin’s Family Matters Direct Primary Care is scheduled to open in October on Route 8 in Hampton. Until then, she has been busy talking up the concept.
Sometimes called subscription medicine, direct primary care patients of all ages pay a flat monthly fee for a wide range of medical services — from vaccinations to physicals to urgent care to treatment of minor injuries, colds and the flu. Dr. Lin’s monthly fee schedule ranges between $10 and $95, depending on the patient’s age.
The concept has been taking root in other parts of Western Pennsylvania. Altoona-based Empower3 Center for Health is a direct primary care practice that counts as clients Altoona Area School District in Blair County and Redstone Highlands, a senior care provider in Westmoreland County. Both organizations are self-insured and have been promised savings on medical expenditures of 15 to 20 percent over three years.
Dr. Lin said she, too, will be offering direct medical care to small employers in addition to individuals, but she wants to limit her practice to about 600 patients.