The American Academy of Family Physicians, the nation’s largest organization representing primary care doctors in family medicine, gave a strong nod of approval to direct-pay models of primary care.

The Academy’s new policy statement on direct-pay says that this model has the potential to restore the physician/patient relationship, improve outcomes, lower healthcare costs, and gives both the practitioner and the patient a greater scope of choice.

“For family physicians, this revenue model can stabilize practice finances, allowing the physician and office staff to focus on the needs of the patient and improving their health outcomes rather than coding and billing. Patients, in turn, benefit from having a DPC practice because the contract fee covers the cost of all primary care services furnished in the DPC practice. This effectively removes any additional financial barriers the patient may encounter in accessing routine careprimary care, including preventative, wellness, and chronic care services,” the statement notes.

The authors add that, “The AAFP supports the physician and patient choice to, respectively, provide and receive health care in any ethical health care delivery system mode, including the DPC practice setting.”

Commenting on the new position, Academy Board chairman Glen Stream, MD, said direct-pay, “eliminates insurance middleman and provides revenue directly to the practice to innovate in both customer service and quality of care for the patients they serve.”

He believes it is, “particularly well suited for small family medicine practices that are struggling financially.”

The AAFP claims that it’s newfound support of direct primary care is consistent with its advocacy of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model in that both approaches aim to re-situate the patient in the middle of all healthcare interactions.

“There is more than one way to build a PCMH,” says Dr. Stream.

Thanks to our friends at Concierge Medicine Today for calling this policy statement to our attention.