What Is Direct Primary Care, And What It Isn’t

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A plain-English guide from Blake Family Medicine in Provo, Utah

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If you’ve heard the term “Direct Primary Care” or “DPC” but aren’t quite sure what it means, you’re not alone. Most people have never been offered a better option than traditional insurance, so when they hear about DPC, their first question is usually: “Wait, is this legit?”

Yes. It’s very legit. And once you understand how it works, it’s hard to imagine going back.

At Blake Family Medicine, we get this question a lot. So we wrote this post to answer it as plainly and honestly as we can.

First, the short answer.

Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a simple, membership-based model of primary care. Instead of billing your insurance for every visit, you pay a flat monthly fee, in our case, $80/month. In return,  you get unlimited access to a real physician who actually knows you.

That’s it. No co-pays. No claim forms. No waiting on hold with an insurance company to find out if your appointment was covered. Just care.

So what does $80 a month actually get you?

At Blake Family Medicine, your membership includes:

• Unlimited office visits — for any reason, any time we’re open
• 5 of the most common/basic labs (other labs are available to you at our cost)
• Access to our limited in-house pharmacy — often at no additional cost at the time of diagnosis
• Direct access to Dr. Blake by phone, text, or email — no phone trees, no portals
• Imaging referrals at 25–50% of standard insurance-driven pricing through our trusted partners
• Discounts on select advanced treatments for skin, intimate wellness, and more

We care for the whole family: newborns to grandparents and most services are included under one subscription. (Family pricing is available. Just ask us.)

Now let’s talk about what DPC is NOT.

This is where people sometimes get confused, so let’s be clear:

DPC is not health insurance. You still need insurance (or a health sharing plan) for hospitalizations, specialist visits, surgeries, and major emergencies. DPC handles your primary care needs — the everyday, the preventive, and the ongoing — brilliantly and affordably. But it doesn’t replace a safety net for the big stuff.

DPC is not a concierge medicine waiting list. Concierge practices often charge $2,000–$5,000/year and still bill your insurance on top of that. DPC is designed to be accessible. Our goal is to keep costs low and your access high — not to be an exclusive club.

DPC is not a walk-in clinic or urgent care. We are your primary care physician. That means continuity, relationship, and history. Dr. Blake knows your name, your family, your health goals, and your story. That relationship is the whole point.

DPC is not limited to healthy people. In fact, people managing chronic conditions — diabetes, hypertension, thyroid issues, mental health — often benefit the most from DPC, because they need consistent, ongoing access to a physician who knows their case inside and out.

Why does DPC exist?

The short answer: because the traditional insurance model broke something important.

In a typical primary care practice today, physicians see 20–30 patients a day. The average visit lasts about 17 minutes. There’s barely time to say hello, let alone think carefully about what you actually need. Doctors aren’t doing this because they don’t care. They’re doing it because the insurance system financially requires it.

DPC removes the insurance middleman. We answer to you, not to a billing code. That changes everything about how care gets delivered.

A quick note about HSAs — great news for 2026.

If you have a Health Savings Account (HSA) through a high-deductible health plan, here’s something worth knowing: as of January 1, 2026, DPC membership fees are now officially classified as qualified medical expenses. That means you can use pre-tax HSA dollars to pay your $80/month membership. For a family, that savings adds up meaningfully over a year.

Is DPC right for you?

It might be, if any of these sound familiar:

• You’ve avoided the doctor because of cost or hassle
• You’ve sat in a waiting room for an hour for a 10-minute visit
• You have a chronic condition that needs regular monitoring
• You’re self-employed or your employer doesn’t offer great coverage
• You just want a doctor who knows your name and picks up the phone

If you’re nodding along, we’d love to meet you.

Ready to see if it’s a good fit?

We invite you to come take a tour of our clinic at 777 N 500 W, Suite 101A in Provo. No pressure. No paperwork. Just come say hello and see the space. If you have questions, call us at (385) 375-7989 or email [email protected].

Or if you’re ready, enrollment is simple and takes just a few minutes at blakefamilymedicine.com/enrollment.

We built this practice because we believe healthcare should feel like it used to—personal, honest, and rooted in trust. We’d love to be your family’s doctor.

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— Blake Family Medicine team  |  Provo, Utah  |  blakefamilymedicine.com

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