Startup DPC Mailbag: How Much Money Do You Need to Start a Direct Primary Care Practice?

How much money do you need to start a direct primary care practice?

This is a question I recently received from someone interested in the direct primary care movement. And, it's a good question. I'll start by saying that I've addressed this question in great detail in my course on Writing a Business Plan for your Direct Primary Care practice. So, for a full answer to this question, please go to https://www.startupdpc.com/take-action and check out the Business Plan course!

To answer the question more directly, a direct primary care practice can be started with $5,000 or with $50,000. It depends on how expensive your lease is, how many staff members you have, how much equipment you need to buy, and how resourceful you are. For many doctors in the direct primary care movement, they know how important it is to keep their overhead low. A lower overhead leads to a lower price point for patients and therefore a higher profit margin.

For me, I launched my practice with about $20,000 in the bank. I bought a $700 exam table, a $1,700 EKG machine, and a $700 pulmonary function test (PFT) machine. I spent about $600 each month on rent, $450 each month on my malpractice insurance, $300 monthly on the electronic medical record system, $500 monthly on medications, and $500 monthly on lab work. Those were the biggest expenses when I started, and my monthly expenses for the first few months of practice were in the $3,000 monthly range. This low overhead made it easy to break even for operations, and I broke even for operations with around 85 patients or 85 members in my practice.

2.I know malpractice differs is each state..but what is the average for a family practice in Michigan? Can this be offset by multiple doctors in a practice (group) or must it be individual?

3. Are you able to make a decent living? 500 x $69/mo which was the middle.. was only $34,000 and you were placing yourself on 24 call! You still have overhead with rent, utilities, taxes, staff payroll....

4. I can't figure out how this is different from concierge but I think it is.

5. What kind of small business package do you offer? Do you charge the business or each employee?