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Membership Management

DPC pricing for 2018: should you change your membership fee at your practice?

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The end of the year is a good time to review the operations and management of your direct primary care (DPC) practice. You might think about marketing more in the upcoming year, to increase your patient panel. You might also consider whether you need to add or reduce your staff level. One question that can impact your practice significantly is the membership fee you charge your patients each month. Now would be a good time to determine whether that membership fee for your DPC practice needs to be changed.

The Direct Primary Care Journal is conducting a survey to determine whether you are increasing your membership fees in 2018 as well as the annual salary for a DPC physician. You can still provide your input into this survey.

So far, the results are showing that most DPC membership fees will remain the same in 2018 as they were in 2017. Half of the survey respondents indicate that they will not change their fees from 2017 to 2018. In fact, about a third of the respondents have indicated that they have not changed their DPC membership fees since at least 2015.

Only 8% of the survey respondents to date have said they plan to raise their fees, about $20 a month for each member. No one has indicated they would raise fees any higher. No one has said they are afraid to raise fees because they might lose patients.

Just over a quarter of those responding to the question regarding physician salary say they are in their first year of their DPC practice. Of those who have been in a DPC practice more than one year, 10.53% said their salary had increased in 2017 and 5.26% said their salary actually decreased in 2017. Just over 21% of the respondents said their salary was less than $100,000 a year.