The government, along with many insurance companies, seem to be pushing families away from seeking care. Taking that back in this episode, we talk about Voyage Direct Primary Care with Dr. John Sanders, a champion for families needing healthcare. Giving healthcare back to families, Dr. Sanders explains the services he is able to provide in his pioneering approach to healthcare. He shares the ways he is disrupting the industry that puts back into place the old-time relationship patients had with doctors. Join Dr. Sanders and see how he is trying to optimize and take people to different heights of health and wellness.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Voyage Direct Primary Care, Giving Healthcare Back to Families
I tend to spend a little bit more time with those people, getting to know them, building relationships and diving into their health care.
If parents have questions and if they want more information, they can ask you. I’m thinking of the impact that has on families and having more choice in health care. Would it be accurate to say this gives them more information, more options and more choices?
You bet. As a family doctor, we’re trained in counseling and talking. We like to talk to our people, visit with them and explain things. Under the current model, it’s not uncommon for us to be scheduled every five to ten minutes. That’s not the health care product that I’d like to deliver. I’ve changed it up and I’m able to spend more time to answer questions and deliver a different care.
It’s more than just having more time with you. Quite often, parents are used to, “There’s one treatment for this.” Like sore throat, “Here’s the treatment for that.” For example, in the sore throat case, sometimes the antibiotic is great and sometimes it doesn’t work. Could they explore alternatives?
I’m an osteopathic family physician, a DO. We tend to be a little bit holistic-minded in our approach towards health care. We like to explore different options for ways to treat different things that come into the office. It’s wonderful to be able to have options for people and talk to them about those options.
It sounds like you’re treating more than the immediate symptoms. I hear there would also be some preventive medicine in this.
The mainstay of family medicine is prevention. I love wellness. I try to optimize and take people to different heights of wellness that they have. Different people are at different levels of health and wellness. I like to take a lot of time and spend time developing a wellness plan.
The mainstay of family medicine is prevention. Click To TweetI know a lot of families rely more on home remedies because they’re worried about the expense of taking their child to the doctor. That’s a shame. You shouldn’t have to worry about, “Can I afford to take my child to the doctor?” Can you talk about that?
You’re right in that. Families had to hunker down and not go to the doctor as much because of what insurance companies and the government have done in squeezing these working families away from health care. They do it in a crafty way. They increase deductibles and co-pays. They have this other thing called co-insurance. It’s ways that they push families away from seeking care. With Voyage Direct Primary Care, we try to change that paradigm by not dealing with the insurance companies at all. I found that in doing this, I can save families money. I come in at an affordable rate for families and their children. It gets rid of all those barriers to care because there are no co-pays or deductibles.
My plan is it’s a monthly fee for mom, dad and any kids. I come in at a rate of about $150 for a family of up to four children. For that much per month, you gain an all-access pass to Dr. Sanders. I can answer questions that you might have. I’m a big fan of home remedies, self-treating and doing those things. It’s also nice to have a quick text or a quick phone call. A lady texted me about some oil she wanted to put on her child’s rash and asked a few questions about it. It was wonderful to be accessible to her via text and phone calls and answer those quick questions. In the current model, it’s difficult to get a hold of your doctor.
You usually have to leave a message to the nurse and then hope that within 24 hours, they’ll get back to you. $150 a month is a fraction of what some parents are paying for their insurance premiums.
It’s as low as about 10% in a lot of instances. Insurance premiums continue to rise and the cost of health care continues to rise. The financial squeeze they put on families continues to rise as well. This is trying to disrupt that industry a little bit by coming in underneath all of that. By contacting directly with people, that puts back into place an old-time relationship that you had with your doctor where you went in, you got service and paid for it. I like that model. There’s a huge upside. It’s re-establishes a direct relationship.
I remember when I was a young mother, going in and having a doctor prescribe medication for me. I was nursing at the time and I said, “You need to know I’m a nursing mother. Is this medicine safe for me to take?” He had no idea what I was talking about, which caused me to lose faith in his recommendations. You have this broad background. You know not just traditional medicine. I understand in medical schools that they don’t spend much time on preventive medicine. It sounds like you’re familiar with the essential oils and home remedies.
I grew up in a small town in central Nevada. My mom was into all these integrative medicines and alternative medicine. I got familiar with them personally and using them. It’s always been an interest of mine as I’ve gone along and gotten a medical education. I’ve always hung to those roots of holistic medicine. I have that approach as I care for my families.
That sounds like it would provide more options for parents also, the time to discuss their concerns. If there’s something you’ve recommended and they’re not feeling comfortable with it, it sounds to me like you take the time to understand what their concerns are. Have you had much opportunity to work with families that have children with special needs?
I have and I wanted to share it with you, I spent about six years in Moab prior to moving to Utah County. I was able to take care of a lot of wonderful families. I was doing obstetrics, ER, in-patient medicine as well as running a busy clinic. It added to the depth and breadth of my experience. I enjoyed the full scope of what I can offer to families. One of my favorite families out there was this sweet family with a child who had cerebral palsy. He had grown up this way. It happened at birth and had a lot of special needs. He had special wheelchairs that he needed. He had special medications that he needed and he had a lot of special medications that he didn’t need. It was a treat for me to be able to visit with him and his family, to build a relationship, to have those visits, get to know them and then to deliver fantastic care to them. It was great.
I know that these parents are under enough stress. It’s tough being a parent but when you have a child who has additional medical expenses or requires more care they’re under a lot of stress. Here is one way that you can help relieve some of that stress. At least they don’t have to worry about it. It sounds like you’re going to be easy to contact if they have a question. You’re going to be able to give them the time they need to ask all the questions, get all the help and support that they need.
Voyage Direct Primary Care offers those services, that accessibility and extended visit times. That’s a huge service to people with special needs children where they may need to contact the doctor on a weekend or after hours and ask a few questions. Having that availability to these families is wonderful.
A lot of parents don’t even feel like they get the opportunity to ask questions about medication that has been prescribed for their child. This sounds excellent. You mentioned that you would also set goals with the family that came in with one symptom. Because you’re taking the preventive approach, what are the long-term goals we could set for your health?
I like to spend a fair amount of my time discussing any health care concerns that they have. Often people will come in and they have hyperlipidemia, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, muscle-skeletal injuries or dermatology. I look to put that all on a shelf and say, “We’re going to work on all these things. Let’s talk about the next ten years. Let’s talk about what your health looks like and how we can take you to a better level of wellness.”
People can go to your website. They could learn more about this new pioneering approach. You have a local range of service and you have a national website. They can go and find out what’s available in the area where they live. What is the link to your website?
Seek the care that you need and don’t be afraid to call or come in and get seen. Click To TweetMy website is VoyageDPC.com. This movement is a national movement, Direct Primary Care. There are more than 100 clinics that converted over to Direct Primary Care. Family doctors want to give care back to families. They’ve noticed that if they can step outside of the insurance model, they can deliver unique and way better care. It’s wonderful. The website to find a DPC doctor near you is DPCfrontier.com.
You talked about giving health care back to families. Can you elaborate a little? In what way is it being given back to families?
They’ve been squeezed by insurance companies, and slowly but surely directed away from care. Any time you go to the doctor, it stings a little bit. If you have a special needs child that needs several doctor visits a year, you don’t like for them to sting. These co-pays and deductibles are hurting families. We don’t have any co-pays or deductibles. We have a monthly membership fee and you have an all-access pass. It’s wonderful.
Would that include any office visits, any phone calls and contacts outside of the office visit?
Yes. It also includes a lot of procedures that we do in the office. We can do those at the cost of membership. Acute procedures that you get a cut on your finger and you need to get seen. We can get you in and get you taken care of those ways, too.
Can you do some of the things that most parents traditionally would go to an emergency room for?
We do splints, slings, ankle sprains, and all that stuff. If it’s something that needs to go to the emergency department, we’re happy to evaluate those things and see if we can help out. If we feel uncomfortable with that, we’re happy to get you moving in the other direction. In Voyage Direct Primary Care, we also have this direct relationship with people financially via this model. It creates incentives for me to advocate for my patients and for my patients to advocate for me. It’s beautiful. One way that I do that is I go out and I have negotiated pricing on MRIs, labs, pathology, and common things that I order out of my office. I have cash pricing on those that are a fraction of what you would pay. Even if you run your insurance, it can be cheaper.
Even if they need care beyond what is provided in your office, can you still save money?
Yes. It’s nice to have a health care advocate. This system is complex and convoluted. It’s difficult to navigate. I was able to talk with one of my patients who got a hospital bill from the emergency room visit that she had many months ago. I was able to talk to her about that and ask a few questions about how things went down. I noticed there was something wrong with that. Ten months later, the hospital gave them a bill and said, “You’ve got two weeks to pay this or we’re going to send you to collections.” That’s not right. I asked if you wouldn’t mind if I called the hospital with her and advocate for her directly. She said, “Sure,” and we did that. I asked the hospital representative a few questions. They were able to look into that and find that it was, an error on their side. They needed to fix that and saved her $1800 for an ER visit. It was wonderful.
It’s by advocating. I identify with that because I’m an education advocate and you are a healthcare advocate.
That’s why I love what you do for our special needs families. For years practicing in Moab and in Florida where I trained, we didn’t have a resource for our special needs family like what you have. Your service is unique. I look forward to working with you as we strive to help families in the Utah County area.
I am thrilled with what you’re doing. Dr. Sanders, this is awesome. Parents need to know about this. I’m happy to share it. Do you have any other words of advice for parents?
Seek the care that you need and don’t be afraid to phone call or come in and get seen. I don’t blame these parents for trying to stay home and take care of things on their own. I love my model because it makes me accessible in those situations where there’s no $50 or $75 co-pay. There are no deductibles. You come in and call or text. Let’s get it taken care of. I can run a rapid strep test in my office conveniently for people. I’m looking forward to growing here. I’m looking forward to providing and pioneering a unique care model for families.
It sounds like it is much needed and will benefit families. You never know when you need to consult a medical professional. That one time I hear have long-term repercussions if you missed it. It’s best to get in there and check it out. I certainly wish you well, Dr. Sanders. Thank you for joining us.
Thanks for having me and thanks for all that you do for this community. What a wonderful service.