What is Direct Primary Care?

A Simpler Form of Healthcare

Direct primary care is a form of healthcare that goes back to the basics where your doctor was by your side at good
times and bad allowing you to see him or her in your time of need.
How is Direct Primary Care Different from Conventional Medical Care?
Rather than paying a large impersonal corporation for the health insurance which then pays for medical services
rendered by your doctor you pay your personal physician directly for all medical care received mostly in an office
setting. Thus, you in conjunction with other members of the practice community support the life and livelihood of
your doctor directly. We do not bill insurance companies. This is paid
by a monthly subscription fee instead of fee-for- service partly paid by an insurance company and partly paid by you
in the form of copays and deductibles. When patients have to pay at each visit they tend to avoid going to the
doctor, but with direct primary care more contact with your doctor is encouraged to help foster a trusting, healing
relationship between you and your physician.
Longer visits if needed are the norm, allowing
unhurried sharing of time during which you and your doctor can really get to know one another. At Hearth Stone
this is the central focus of your healthcare upon which the practical side of medicine is based. You are a person first
and foremost to us who has a body that perhaps could be healthier or is frankly bringing you pain and limitation.
Healing and the end of suffering is the overall goal (for more on healing and the healing studies program, go to that
part of this website).
You still need health insurance if you join our direct primary care practice. Specifically, it is needed for
hospitalizations, emergency room visits, expensive medicines, imaging studies, and laboratory studies which are not
performed in the office. A “wrap-around” policy would be ideal. You can read more about how insurance fits into
the direct primary care business model over here.

Other Features of Direct Primary Care
Almost always you will be seeing your personal physician at your office visit. Greater availability, flexibility and
coherence of care are made possible by the fact that we limit our patient panels to 500-600 patients per physician-
nurse team rather than the standard 1500-2500 patient panels typically found in commercial settings. This allows
same-day or next-day appointments for more urgent matters. After hours, your physician or his partner are available
via an answering service 24/7 in addition to the office answering machine on which you can leave non-urgent
messages. Some communication through electronic media is available, too, for example, e-mail. (Needless to say,
face-to- face encounters are the best way to foster your relationship with us.) Home visits and meeting you where
you live are offered where appropriate, e.g., if you find yourself with very limited mobility in the course of an illness
or, when the time comes, you choose to pass through the inevitable demise of the body at home.

A Word on Our Name
The Latin word for hearth is focus from which we derive our English word focus. In the ancient Greco-Roman
world the focus of the home was at the hearthside at the heart of that home. Here family members came together to
share their company in the warmth radiating from the fire and often where food was cooked to be eaten and enjoyed
for the nourishment of their bodies. Our focus here at Hearth Stone is the same communion of all involved, from
our office staff to you and your physician, who come together sometimes for help in difficulty but always for the
healing relationship we extend to you.