Dr Josh Umbehr is founder of Atlas MD, a technology company that supports doctors who are in the direct primary care, aka “concierge medicine” business. We’ll discuss “Site-Neutral” Medicare pricing which, based on what I know today, I support. Hospital groups hate it. But the impact on competition in the sense of how the current system drives massive consolidation (and thus reduction of competition) would be massively beneficial.

The United States is facing a healthcare affordability crisis with inflation expected to drive costs up by 6.5 percent next year. While Americans worry about the rising costs of medical care, many of the underlying causes of higher prices are overlooked. Bad government policies, especially Medicare reimbursement policies, foster an environment of consolidation in the healthcare industry, leading to higher prices that hurt everyone. Medicare policies must be changed to bring down costs.

Last week on Here & Now, host Peter O’Dowd spoke to a primary care doctor about the new trend of membership care, a model that’s becoming more common across the country. Under this model, doctors ask patients to sign up for membership plans for direct primary care services.

The conversation sparked a debate online with members of the concierge medicine community. This is a follow-up conversation with Dr. Josh Umbehr, a direct care doctor at Atlas MD. He brings a different perspective on this model of care and tells O’Dowd why he believes this model is better for patients and how it avoids a doctor shortage.

After two years of lockdowns, panics, and gallons of hand sanitizer, we seem to be entering a post-COVID world. Governments are relaxing vaccine mandates and minimizing masks mandates, while markets are returning to normal. We’ve all learned more about the Greek alphabet then we did in high school. Bill Maher accurately assessed the pulse of the nation when he concluded, we’re “over COVID.”

As direct primary care practices have grown over the last few years, there is now an expanding commercial marketplace for products and consultants to help DPC practices find success. It is a sign that people outside of medicine are beginning to recognize that DPC is a force to be reckoned with.

At one time only available to the very rich, a model of what is now called “direct primary care” has been developed by Atlas MD in Wichita and is rapidly spreading across the country.

Dr Josh Umbehr sits down with former senator Bill Frist to discuss the state of healthcare and why the Atlas MD model is the future of primary care.

The administration hopes to make Medicare open to direct primary care. Under the arrangement, Medicare would pay a fixed monthly fee to a physician or physician group instead of the traditional fee-for-service payments. In return, the physicians would provide virtually all primary care. The fees would range from $90 to $120 a month, depending on the patient’s age and medical complexity.

Concierge doctors used to be available only to the rich. Today, “direct primary care” is far more affordable. Atlas MD in Wichita, for example, provides all primary care along with 24/7 phone and email access and generic drugs for less than what Medicaid pays. They help patients gain access to specialist care and diagnostic tests, with minimal waiting. The cost: $50 a month for a middle-aged adult and $10 a month for a child.

Dr. Umbehr and Dr. Segal discuss the potential of direct primary care, the origins of Dr. Umbehr’s interest in the space, and how direct primary care influences outcomes, insurance expenditures, and interactions with patients.

Innovative family practice physicians such as Dr. Josh Umbehr of Atlas M.D. may not be able to dismantle intrusive health-care regulations, but they are finding ways to sidestep them and provide excellent care to their patients at surprisingly affordable prices.

Health-care policy is often portrayed as a fight between government and insurance companies. But one of the most effective cost-saving measures is to cut out both and allow patients to deal directly with doctors.

Dr. Josh Umbehr isn’t afraid to stand up for patients … even in the Senate. Dr. Umbehr helps lawmakers take more interest in limiting physician burdens and increasing the level of care that patients receive.

Primary care physicians can curb healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes via telemedicine and new payment models and purchasing options, witnesses told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday.

In a direct primary care model — what Joshua Umbehr, MD, of Atlas MD in Wichita, Kansas, characterized as a more affordable cousin of “concierge care” — patients pay a monthly fee based on age.

Scores of doctors are taking a page from Netflix’s playbook and getting into the subscription business.

They’ve adopted a business model called “direct primary care,” whereby patients pay a periodic fee for access to primary care physicians. Since 2014, the number of direct primary care practices in America has grown more than six times over.

Millions of Americans continue to struggle under the rising costs and bureaucratic mess spawned by the Affordable Care Act better known as Obamacare with no end in sight. Despite Congress’s inaction on solving the escalating crisis, doctors across the country are calling for a better system: Direct Primary Care.

Dr. Josh Umbehr of Atlas M.D. speaks about how direct primary care has grown in recent years and how it’s shaping the future of medicine in America.

Josh Umbehr, a Kansas-based family physician and entrepreneur, is on a mission to bring down the price of health care, starting with prescription drugs.

So for years, he’s been regularly emailing the one person that he believes can make a difference.

And that’s Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

As health insurance premiums rise and the health care bill faces uncertainty, some Kansans are looking for other health care alternatives.

One, in particular, is called direct primary care. According to practicing physicians, it’s the “Netflix of medicine.”

As health insurance premiums rise and the health care bill faces uncertainty, some Kansans are looking for other health care alternatives.

One, in particular, is called direct primary care. According to practicing physicians, it’s the “Netflix of medicine.”

Dr Josh Umbehr, M.D., speaks to a lunch gathering of the Wichita Pachyderm Club on May 12, 2017, about Atlas MD, a direct primary care medical provider and its potential for meaningful health care reform.

Dr Josh Umbehr, M.D., spoke to a lunch gathering of the Wichita Pachyderm Club May 12, 2017, about Atlas MD, a direct primary care medical provider and its potential for meaningful health care reform.

Meet AtlasMD out of Wichita, KS, a direct primary care physician service (DPC). Run by doctors Josh Umbehr and Doug Nunamaker, AtlasMD is revolutionizing healthcare one transparent and affordable transaction at a time.

Dr. Josh Umbehr, the founder of Wichita-based AtlasMD, appeared as a guest on the Fox News program The Sean Hannity Show to discuss the Direct Care business and how it can be used to drive change within health care.

Sean Hannity offers up Atlas MD’s Direct Care model as a possible tool for fixing healthcare. Dr. Ben Carson agrees.

The Atlas DPC model is regarded as “perfect” in a recent US House Budget meeting with a topic of “Restoring the Trust for Families and Working-Age Americans.”

They take care of us when we’re sick, help keep us from falling ill and manage the health care systems we use.

As ICD-10 rolls out on October 1, 2015, Direct Care practices around the country will sit back and watch the madness from the sidelines.

Atlas MD launches the Direct Care Curriculum, where healthcare professionals can learn everything there is to know about Direct Care – completely free of charge.

Dr. Josh shares his business model for providing insurance-free medical care to other physicians around the country to grow the DPC movement.

Doug Farrago, MD shares why he believes the Atlas.md EMR is the ideal reasonable costing cloud solution EMR for DPC practices.

Dr. Josh and Dr. Doug share the exact strategy, services, and pricing they’ve used to grow their own direct-pay primary care (DPC) practice

Obamacare Expert Patricia Newman on the VA Scandal and Government Run Healthcare

Josh Umbehr of the Kansas-based medical practice Atlas MD explains how his practice delivers low-cost family medicine using a direct-pay membership model.

Clinical Innovation Network Webinar: Engaging Medical Students in the Practice of Free Market Medicine

Free Market Alternatives to ObamaCare

I just want to the opportunity to practice good medicine. The less Washington has to do with that, the better.

As their personal urgent care physician – lacerations, broken bones, earaches, and stomach flus — I can handle all of this at no extra cost to my patients.

The reality is that 80% of what I see in the ER is “family medicine after hours.” I could safely see these patients in my own practice, and save them time and money.

The bottom line is that bureaucrats are telling docs what they can and can’t do — and that needs to stop.

Atlas MD today launches Atlas.md EMR, a web-based app designed so that direct primary care physicians can operate their own insurance-free practices.