Health Insurance ≠ Healthcare: Why I Chose to DO Things Differently

November 1st marks National Direct Primary Care (DPC) Day, a day dedicated to recognizing a growing movement of physicians and patients who believe healthcare can, and should, be better. It also coincides with the beginning of open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace, a time when millions of Americans begin evaluating their healthcare coverage and what it will cost them in the coming year.

As you compare premiums, deductibles, copays, and provider networks, I want to challenge you to consider something that often gets lost in the conversation: Having health insurance and having access to healthcare are not the same thing.

I believe we have reached a point where our healthcare system has become unnecessarily complicated, expensive, and impersonal. Patients are frustrated. Physicians are burned out. And somewhere along the way, the relationship between a patient and their physician has taken a backseat to billing codes, insurance requirements, and corporate productivity metrics. I know this because I've experienced it firsthand. And it's exactly why I decided to do something different.

When Healthcare Became a Transaction

I didn't go into medicine because I wanted to see how many patients I could squeeze into a day or how efficiently I could document a visit for an insurance company. I became a physician because I wanted to help people. I wanted to build relationships, solve problems, educate patients, and make a meaningful difference in their lives. But as I spent more time practicing within the traditional fee-for-service healthcare model, I began to feel that medicine had become increasingly transactional.

There were days when I would leave work knowing that I could not possibly have done any more. I had worked through lunch, stayed late, managed an overwhelming number of patient encounters, and still had hours of documentation and administrative work waiting for me at home. Yet despite giving everything I had, I would leave knowing that I hadn't been able to give every patient everything they needed, or deserved. Maybe a patient needed another 15 minutes to talk about their anxiety, but the schedule was already running behind. Maybe someone had several concerns, but there was only enough time to address the most pressing issue. Maybe a complicated medical problem deserved a thoughtful conversation about options, but the demands of the day made that nearly impossible.

It wasn't that I didn't care. It was that the system didn't allow me to care for people in the way I had been trained to, or the way I believed they deserved. And that was defeating.

In medicine, we talk about burnout, but I think there's another important term that deserves attention: moral injury. It's the distress that comes from knowing what the right thing to do is, but repeatedly being prevented from doing it by circumstances outside your control.

I was exhausted, but more importantly, I was becoming disillusioned with a healthcare system that seemed to reward volume over value and documentation over meaningful patient interactions.

Perhaps one of the most disheartening parts of this experience was watching talented, compassionate colleagues reach their breaking points. Physicians who had dedicated years of their lives to caring for others were becoming so frustrated and exhausted by the system that they were choosing to walk away from medicine altogether. And I couldn't blame them. When a profession built on compassion and service becomes a source of constant frustration and moral injury, something is fundamentally wrong. I understood their struggles because I was experiencing many of those same feelings myself. But I wasn't ready to give up on the profession I had worked so hard to become a part of. I didn't want to leave medicine. I wanted to find a better way to practice it.

Finding a Better Way to Practice Medicine

That's what led me to Direct Primary Care. When I opened Body Mind Spirit Direct Primary Care in Lexington, Kentucky, I wasn't simply trying to start a business. I was trying to create the kind of medical practice I had always envisioned; one where the relationship between a patient and their physician was the priority, rather than an afterthought.

As an osteopathic family physician, I was trained to see patients as whole people, not just a collection of symptoms, diagnoses, or billing codes. Osteopathic medicine emphasizes the interconnectedness of the body, mind, and spirit, and the importance of understanding the person behind the medical problem. That philosophy is difficult to fully embrace when you're racing against the clock.

Direct Primary Care gives me the freedom to practice medicine the way I believe it should be practiced. I can spend time educating patients. I can focus on prevention. I can consider the physical, emotional, and social factors affecting someone's health. I can use my osteopathic training and hands-on treatment skills when appropriate. And perhaps most importantly, I can build meaningful relationships with the people who trust me with their care.

I can also go home at the end of the day knowing that I had the opportunity to give my patients the time and attention they deserved. That doesn't mean every day is easy, or that running an independent medical practice is without challenges. But the challenges are different when you're building something you believe in. I don't have to measure success by how many patients I can see in a day. I can measure it by the quality of care I provide, the relationships I build, and the difference I make in my patients' lives. And to me, that's what practicing medicine should be about.

What Is Direct Primary Care, Anyway?

Direct Primary Care is a healthcare model that removes insurance billing from the primary care relationship. Instead of charging your insurance company for every office visit, procedure, or interaction, patients pay a predictable monthly membership fee directly to their physician. That membership provides access to a wide range of primary care services without traditional copays or per-visit charges.

At Body Mind Spirit Direct Primary Care, that means you can see me when you're sick, when you're managing a chronic condition, when you need preventive care, or when you simply have questions about your health. You can communicate with me directly through phone, text, email, or our secure patient portal. You can schedule visits without worrying about an additional office visit copay. And when we need more time to discuss your concerns, we can take that time. There isn't an insurance company determining how much time I should spend with you or requiring me to justify every interaction with a billing code.

The beauty of DPC is its simplicity. Instead of creating barriers between patients and their physician, we work to remove them. Instead of focusing on the number of visits or procedures performed, we focus on the health of the patient. And the benefits extend beyond the exam room. One of the most important advantages of this model is the ability to bring something back to healthcare that has been missing for far too long: transparency.

What If We Actually Knew What Healthcare Cost?

There's another part of our healthcare system that has bothered me for years: the complete lack of transparency when it comes to cost. Think about almost any other service you purchase. You generally know what you're going to pay before you agree to it. You wouldn't take your car to a mechanic, authorize a repair, and then wait two months to find out what the repair actually cost and how much you still owed. Yet that's essentially what we ask patients to do with healthcare every single day. You go to the doctor. You pay your copay, if you have one. Weeks or months later, you receive an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from your insurance company showing what was billed, what was allowed, what insurance paid, and what remains your responsibility. Then, sometimes even later, a bill arrives. And you may have had absolutely no idea what that final number would be when you received the care. How is that acceptable? Patients deserve to know what healthcare services cost before they receive them. They deserve to make informed decisions not only about their medical treatment but also about the financial implications of that treatment. And they shouldn't have to navigate a maze of insurance terminology just to understand what they owe.

Cost transparency shouldn't be a luxury. It should be an expectation. At my clinic, patients know exactly what their monthly membership costs and what services are included. There are no surprise copays for office visits or unexpected bills months later for the primary care services covered by their membership. We also offer access to discounted laboratory testing, medications, and imaging services, with transparent pricing whenever possible. If additional testing or treatment is needed, we can discuss the options and anticipated costs before making decisions. Of course, DPC doesn't cover every healthcare expense, and it isn't a replacement for insurance that protects against major medical costs. But for the primary care services people use regularly, it offers something increasingly difficult to find in traditional healthcare: predictability. And when people can better understand and anticipate their healthcare expenses, they're empowered to make decisions that work for both their health and their finances.

Better Care Doesn't Have to Mean More Expensive Care

One of the biggest misconceptions about Direct Primary Care is that it's concierge medicine reserved for wealthy patients. That couldn't be further from what I'm trying to accomplish.

I opened Body Mind Spirit Direct Primary Care with a very specific mission: to make healthcare accessible, affordable, and meaningful.

I want the parent who is tired of paying an urgent care copay every time their child gets sick to have a better option. I want the small business owner who struggles to afford health benefits for employees to have an alternative worth considering. I want the patient with diabetes or high blood pressure to be able to communicate with their physician without worrying about the cost of another visit. And I want people who have insurance but cannot afford to use it because of high deductibles to know that they have options.

For many patients, the monthly cost of DPC can be less than what they might spend on just a few traditional office visits, urgent care encounters, or other out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. The actual savings depend on individual circumstances, but the value goes beyond dollars. There's value in being able to get an appointment when you need one. There's value in having a physician who knows your medical history and your family. There's value in addressing a problem before it becomes an emergency. And there's tremendous value in not having to wonder what your next primary care visit is going to cost.

DPC isn't about making healthcare exclusive. It's about making the physician-patient relationship accessible again.

Open Enrollment: Think Beyond Your Insurance Card

As open enrollment begins, many Americans will spend the next several weeks evaluating insurance plans. They'll compare monthly premiums, deductibles, prescription coverage, and out-of-pocket maximums. Those are important considerations. Health insurance remains an essential financial protection against major medical expenses, including hospitalizations, surgeries, and serious illnesses.

But I encourage you to ask another question as you evaluate your options:

Does my health insurance actually make it easier for me to receive the healthcare I need?

A lower monthly premium doesn't necessarily mean lower overall healthcare expenses. And a more expensive insurance plan doesn't automatically mean you'll have better access to a physician. For some individuals and families, pairing DPC with an appropriate insurance plan may offer a more affordable and accessible approach to healthcare. For others, DPC can complement existing employer-sponsored insurance or Medicare by providing a more personal and predictable primary care experience. And for employers, offering DPC as an employee benefit can be a meaningful way to improve access to primary care while creating opportunities to reduce certain healthcare expenses. The key is understanding that your insurance coverage and your primary care relationship don't necessarily have to be bundled together. You have more options than you might realize.

We Can DO Better

National Direct Primary Care Day is about more than celebrating a healthcare model. It's about recognizing that the status quo doesn't have to be our only option. We have become so accustomed to complicated insurance rules, surprise medical bills, rushed appointments, and difficulty accessing care that we've started to accept these things as normal. But normal doesn't mean acceptable.

Patients deserve transparency. Physicians deserve the freedom to practice medicine without unnecessary administrative interference. Employers deserve better options for supporting the health of their workforce. And everyone deserves access to meaningful healthcare without having to navigate an unnecessarily complicated system. Direct Primary Care won't solve every problem in American healthcare. But I believe it's an important step toward restoring something we've lost: a healthcare system built around people rather than transactions.

I didn't open Body Mind Spirit Direct Primary Care because I wanted to practice less medicine. I opened it because I wanted to practice better medicine. And on this National DPC Day, I invite you to consider what your healthcare experience could look like if we started putting the patient-physician relationship first again. Because health insurance isn't the same thing as healthcare. And we can DO better.

Experience the Difference with Direct Primary Care

If you're in Lexington or the surrounding Central Kentucky area and are ready for a more personal, accessible, and transparent healthcare experience, I invite you to visit me at Body Mind Spirit Direct Primary Care. I'd love to show you what healthcare can look like when the relationship between you and your physician comes first. And if you live outside our area, I encourage you to explore Direct Primary Care practices in your own community. There are independent physicians across the country who share this commitment to putting patients before paperwork and relationships before transactions. You can search for a practice near you using the DPC Frontier Mapper or simply search Google for "Direct Primary Care physician near me." Wherever you live, you deserve healthcare that is accessible, affordable, and meaningful. You don't have to settle for the status quo.