About Blake Family Medicine

Most clinics are built around maximizing patient throughput. We are built around maximizing the patient/physician time. Our default visit length is 40 minutes. Not only does this mean that your concerns are heard and addressed, it also means that the clinic runs on time because the whole day isn’t an exercise in squeezing things in.

All care in the clinic is covered except many of the ADVATx treatments and some of the more expensive prescription medications. There are no co-pays, no co-insurance, no deductibles, nor prior-approvals for the services we do. Just one consistent and predictable cost. But perhaps more importantly, a subscription model opens up opportunities for care outside of the office like virtual visits and access for texting and emailing—all with the same physician. Sometimes the best care isn’t a visit to the office.

Our subscription is primary care oriented. To keep the cost of the subscription down, we felt it best to offer a discount for the ADVATx for those who would like to benefit from it.

The truth is that we are always paying “extra” for our healthcare. Insurance companies just give it fancy names like copay, co-insurance, and deductibles. Then they add in more complexity with various services and modifiers like family deductible and non-deductible qualifying expenses. On the finance side, Direct Primary Care gives you, the patient, a predictable, budget-able, and transparent expense. Much (if not all) of this expense is covered by not paying as much in premiums for primary care to your insurance company.

Your health insurance company isn’t worried about your money, they are worried about theirs. It’s time for some free market medicine to help you out.

Many people can save money by paying for health insurance that covers big events (smaller insurance premiums) and then letting the free market work for the day-to-day expenses. A free market solution for primary care is Direct Primary Care.

Our structure is designed around the patient/physician relationship. Nice, simple, and focused. All of our staff is focused on the patient’s care. We have no administrators. There are a lot of overhead savings when everyone only cares for the patient—not the insurance.

Economy of scale works for us by partnering with the thousands of smaller practices for purchasing—like our great lab rates. But beyond the dollar, and more importantly, we can offer services that the regular clinics can’t because we are simple and focused on what we do well—primary care.

For too many clinics, access means an online patient portal that patients only bother to use when they tire of trying to get through the phone tree. At Blake Family Medicine, we don’t have a phone tree. We just try to answer the phone. When a lab comes back, we contact you. When you have a question, you can email or text your physician directly. If a virtual visit is more appropriate, then don’t waste your time coming into the clinic. If you need a prescription refill, please contact us, not your pharmacy.

Yes, we do make house calls for those where a visit to the clinic would be a great burden or when a virtual visit isn’t sufficient. An example is the first newborn visit. Any mother can tell you that having to go to the clinic the day after getting home from the hospital is never simple. We agree. We come to your house to make that important evaluation. Moms and newborns should be home bonding and recuperating – not going to the clinic.

We welcome visits. Please reach out to us at [email protected] to schedule a free discussion. You are also welcome to swing by our clinic.

For many employed patients just switching to a higher deductible plan is a good start. For others, we are happy to put you in touch with an insurance broker or a cost sharing plan that might save you money.

Definitely not. A subscription is not insurance nor does it try to be. It is an efficient way to pay for broad spectrum primary care. For the patient, it allows for consistent and predictable costs. And most years, it is all a patient will need.

Insurance is best suited for rare and catastrophic events—like an accident. Seeing your personal physician shouldn’t be rare or catastrophic.

The main reason is that I wanted to spend more time with my patients. Both in person and between formal visits. Too many of my stops mirrored the national data: the average physician was spending 70% of their time with paperwork and 30% with patients. When I worked in DPC in the past, that number was reversed. And the paperwork I filled out directly benefited the patient—not their 3rd party payor. Now that I have control of my own clinic, I want it to be geared towards the patient, not their insurance.