Direct Primary Care Legislation Rapidly Advancing in Multiple States – A News Roundup From Hint Health

SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / The Direct Primary Care (DPC) model has been growing nationwide at an astonishing pace with some states seeing a 2,084% surge in new DPC practices added – and even the slowest reporting a 67% expansion. The DPC model has been widely praised by both doctors and patients for the high quality of care coupled with low consumer prices. It does this by eliminating the insurance company middleman, allowing physicians to treat their patients without need for insurance authorizations, excessive administrative expenses, inflated costs or needless specialist referrals. Instead, patients pay a monthly subscription fee – averaging around $70 for an individual and about $150 for a family of four – which enables full access to their primary physician whenever needed – for checkups, emergencies and sometimes even house calls – as well as wholesale prices on drugs and lab work.

With such a win-win proposition, it’s no surprise that many states have been working to enact legislation to ensure that Direct Patient Care thrives. Hint Health, a pioneer in workflow automation for DPC physicians, has compiled a summary of the numerous bills advancing through state legislatures which deal with Direct Primary Care.

One of the hurdles has been red tape on the state level, which often lumps Direct Primary Care under the definition of “insurance” thus making it subject to excessive and even irrelevant regulations. The simplest solution that most states have chosen is to just declare that a DPC agreement between a patient and doctor does not constitute “insurance.” This is the approach that three states are in the process of working towards:

In January, the Florida State House of Representatives passed HB 37. The bill has now advanced to the Florida State Senate for consideration.
On February 14, H4643 was unanimously approved by the South Carolina House of Representatives and advanced to the State Senate.
Wisconsin has a pair of bills advancing through the legislature. Assembly Bill 798 was approved on February 20. A companion bill, Senate Bill 670, is awaiting scheduling. In addition to defining Direct Patient Care as “not insurance,” both bills aim to open up DPC to Medicaid recipients.
The Nebraska State Legislature is considering LB 1119, which would launch a two-year pilot program opening up Direct Primary Care services to state employees. The state had already authorized DPC in 2016.

Hint Health launched in 2013 with one mission – to provide the tools for direct care doctors to automate their back office operations and DPC administration. Hint’s advanced SaaS platform includes all the software engines for robust plan management, patient onboarding, billing & collections, eligibility management and even inventory control necessary to streamline a direct primary care practice. Their clients include DPC practices throughout the United States, and as such the company is in a unique position to compile some of the most detailed, “ground-level” data on all aspects of the DPC industry including nationwide growth trends, pricing trends, payment trends and key demographic information. In much the same way that ADP has become the premier source for U.S. employment data due to its payroll processing work, Hint has become a primary source for Direct Primary Care data.

Journalists, doctors, and others interested to learn more about the Direct Primary Care industry are encouraged to download a copy of Hint’s “2017 Direct Primary Care Trends Report.”

About Hint Health

Founded with an exclusive focus on the direct primary care movement, Hint has been working with trailblazing physicians to automate their administration workflows since 2013, making it easy to operate and scale-up this new practice model while efficiently managing overhead costs.

CONTACT:

Matt Kalinowski
(415) 854-6366 x019
press@hint.com

SOURCE: Hint Health

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