Catholic Doctors Turn to Direct Primary Care to Practice Medicine, Faith, by Daniel Payne

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 18, 2023 / 09:35 am – As the medical model of “direct primary care” continues to grow in the U.S., a number of Catholic doctors are adopting it as a means to combine both the practice of medicine and the living out of their Catholic faith.

Direct primary care (DPC) is a subscription-based model of health care in which patients pay a monthly fee to a primary care provider. The fee, which is adjusted on the basis of family size, generally allows for unlimited doctors’ visits as well as reduced rates for services such as prescriptions and labs.

Most DPC offices are cash-pay; insurance is generally not accepted. Practitioners say the reductions in paperwork and administrative costs allow considerably more time for doctors to meet one-on-one with patients and provide a higher quality of service. …