We are getting close to opening day on February 2, 2015!
Our office is located at 123 Pleasant Street in Marblehead, MA – in the same building as the Warwick Theater and Palmers Restaurant.
We’re located conveniently on corner of the first floor, with an entrance right from the sidewalk. The area has ample street parking, and the building includes a large parking lot in the back.
See some picture of the status on our office construction:
Direct Primary Care Journal is a great resource for news about Direct Primary Care.
They’ve just released the 2015 Edition of “DPC Consumer/Patient Guide.”
“At about 98+ pages, “The DPC Consumer Guide“ is widely used in physician offices. undergraduate and medical college classrooms, and corporate offices worldwide. More than a dozen of the new entries in the 2015 Edition are in the sections on FAQs About DPC, which include: The Difference Between Concierge Medicine and Direct Primary Care (DPC); How Does This Work With My Flex Spending Account, Medical Savings, HSA or HRA? and Does DPC pair well with insurance plans? and more.”
You can learn more about Dr. Jeffrey S. GOld and Gold Direct Care at golddirectcare.com or subscribe to our email list.
At Gold Direct Care we are working with a team of consultants at MedFirst Partners. They specialize in converting traditional primary care practices into DPC practices. They are thoroughly educated in the DPC model of medicine and will be able to answer any and all questions that you may have.
You can get in touch with Susan from MedFirst Partners via email at SUSAN.ABRAMOVICH@MEDFIRSTPARTNERS.COM or via phone at 1-800-939-1850 ext. 1.
What is Direct Primary Care (DPC)?
DPC is an innovative primary care model of medicine in which the physician-patient relationship is at the heart of how medicine is practiced. DPC practices offer a full range of primary care services for a monthly or annual retainer fee paid directly to the practice.
How does a DPC practice differ from a traditional primary care practice?
In a traditional primary care practice, doctors are compensated based on how they code and the quantity of patients they see, rather than based on the quality of care that they provide. In a DPC practice, quality of care is the number one priority. By cutting down on the panel size of patients from approximately 2500 patients to 600-800 patients, doctors working in a DPC practice are able to spend unlimited time with patients; patients have easier access to appointment times that meet their scheduling needs; patients are guaranteed to see their doctor, not another provider; patients are able to reach out to their doctor via e-mail and cell phone. These are just some of the benefits of a DPC practice.
What role does insurance play in a DPC practice? Will Gold Direct Care accept insurance?
Insurance has no role in a DPC practice, therefore Gold Direct Care will not be accepting insurance. Gold Direct Care will charge a flat monthly or annual fee that will cover all comprehensive primary care services. The patient will still need to retain an insurance policy in the event of catastrophic illness or hospitalization. At Gold Direct Care we recommend a high deductible insurance plan with a lower monthly premium as we have discounted labs done on site, reduced imaging fees at outside sites, and reduced generic medication prices at a local pharmacy. We can also work with you to customize an insurance plan that works in conjunction with DPC.
Is DPC Insurance and does it replace insurance?
No it is not insurance nor does it replace it as stated above. Insurance is an important part of specialist and hospital care. Similar to automobile insurance, our health insurance system was originally designed to pay for rare, unpredictable, and extremely expensive problems. It is essential when patients need emergency care or an operation and chemotherapy treatments, care provided by specialists and hospitals.
Can I use my insurance elsewhere if I join Gold Direct Care?
Your insurance plans will continue to operate “as usual” at other doctors’ offices, hospitals and pharmacies. Some plans do not require a designated “gatekeeper” doctor for referrals, medications, tests, and the like, so Gold Direct Care can order those services as needed just as any other doctor would do. Some HMO-style plans do require an “in-network” primary care doctor for access to other services, so these plans do not pair as well with membership at Gold Direct Care. Please check with your insurance company.
What if I need to be referred to a specialist?
The hope is that by spending more time with your primary care physician, the need to refer you to a specialist will decrease significantly. However, in the event that you do need to be referred to a specialist, Dr. Gold will personally call the specialist on your behalf in order to schedule an expedited appointment. Gold Direct Care will also be offering a service called RubiconMD that does online consultations with some of the top specialists in all fields from teaching hospitals across the country. Dr. Gold will also continue to work with all of the NSMC/MGH specialists in the area.
What is the impact on Medicare patients?
At Gold Direct Care, we accept patients that are on Medicare; however, we do not bill Medicare, nor can the patient bill Medicare for primary care services that we provide. Medicare will still cover any laboratory testing, imaging, medications, referrals to specialists, and hospitalizations. Our consultants at Medfirst Partners can also answer more specific questions regarding Medicare as this can be very confusing for patients and we want to simplify this as much as possible.
What services are included with membership?
Your annual physical exam; up to 12 sick visits throughout the year; guaranteed same-day or next-day appointments; access to Dr. Gold via his personal cell phone and e-mail. E visits through Skype, FaceTime, etc are also included.
Gold Direct Care was recently featured in an online article in the local news source, Marblehead Patch.
“No more copays, no more pesky insurance cards and more time to ask your doctor important questions. This is the vision of Marblehead doctor Jeffrey Gold, the first physician in Massachusetts to open a Direct Primary Care practice.
Direct Primary Care is a model of healthcare in which patients pay the doctor a flat-rate, monthly or annual fee for a range of medical care and services. Dr. Gold’s patients will pay a monthly, age-based fee ranging from $30 to $125, which includes an annual physical exam, according to Marketwired.“
To My Patients and to Prospective Patients,
It has been an honor to practice primary care in the community in which I grew up and where I now live with my wife and our 5 year old twins. When I made the decision to become a Family Practice Doctor, I had a vision of what I thought my practice would be like…it would be in a community similar to where I grew up; I would have personal relationships with all of my patients; I would be accessible to my patients when they need me; I would be able to spend as much time as I want with my patients; and the list goes on and on.
Over the course of the past couple of years, due to many factors, it became very clear to me that my vision for how I wanted to practice medicine was not coming to fruition; at least not in the dysfunction of the current healthcare system. I started to read about a movement in the world of primary care medicine called Direct Primary Care (DPC). DPC was quickly gaining notoriety and attention, not only in the medical community, but in the business world as well. Slowly but surely news outlets such as MSNBC, FOX NEWS, and CNN started to interview doctors who opened DPC practices across the country. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and other major news outlets started publishing articles about the DPC movement and the attention that it is getting in the medical community. The more I read and the more research I did, it became obvious to me that the vision that I had for how I wanted to practice medicine- as well as the vision that I had for how my patients deserve to have me practice medicine- could be achieved by opening my own DPC practice. I truly believe that Direct Primary Care is a large part of the solution to the healthcare crisis in this country.
After two years of doing research, attending DPC conferences, having numerous conversations with doctors who are already operating successful DPC practices, and lengthy discussions with people in the business world, I am proud to introduce you to Gold Direct Care. I am the first doctor in the state of Massachusetts to open such a practice, and I know it is the right thing to do for me, but most importantly for my patients.
Please peruse GoldDirectCare.com to learn more about Direct Primary Care. I look forward to growing my practice with you, my patients, by my side. And I thank you for allowing me the privilege of being your doctor.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey S. Gold, M.D.