S1 Ep169: What most physicians get wrong about direct primary care, with Josh Umbehr, M.D.
About this episode
Josh Umbehr, M.D. discusses the economics and misconceptions of direct primary care.
Direct primary care has been around long enough that most physicians know the pitch: drop the billing, charge a monthly membership, keep a smaller panel and spend real time with patients. What takes longer to answer is whether the economics hold up once you're in it. Josh Umbehr, M.D., co-founder of Atlas MD in Wichita, Kansas, moved into DPC straight out of residency in 2010 and has spent the years since helping other physicians make the same jump. He joins the show to walk through the real math of a DPC practice, what happens when a patient needs a specialist and why he thinks the window for insurance-based primary care is closing fast. Music Credits: Distant Memories by Buurd - stock.adobe.com A Textbook Example by Skip Peck - stock.adobe.com Editor's note: Episode timestamps and transcript produced using AI tools. 0:00 Cold open: putting the hospitality back in health care 0:22 Introduction 1:44 How Umbehr found direct primary care 3:40 The basic math of a DPC practice 6:38 Panel size, and why bigger isn't the goal 8:11 Setting prices and the good-better-best tradeoff 11:18 What low overhead actually looks like 13:50 Specialists, imaging and hospitalizations 17:38 P2…
People in this episode
Guest: Josh Umbehr, M.D.
Topics covered
- direct primary care
- physician economics
- patient relationships
- insurance-based primary care
- DPC practice
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Atlas MD
Places: Wichita, Kansas
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