What direct primary care is, and whether it's right for you
Most people come to direct primary care because something about regular healthcare stopped working for them. The appointment booked three weeks out. The 13 minutes with a doctor who was already reaching for the door. The bill that showed up two months later for a number nobody mentioned at the visit. None of it is exactly anyone’s fault. It’s how primary care runs when it’s built around insurance billing instead of around you.
Direct primary care is built differently.
What direct primary care actually is
You pay the practice a flat monthly fee, and in return you get your primary care: checkups, sick visits, chronic conditions, the in-office procedures, and direct access to your provider. No copay at the visit. No insurance claim filed for your care. The fee is the fee.
That one change, taking insurance out of the room, is what makes the rest possible. A practice that doesn’t bill insurance doesn’t need two or three thousand patients on its rolls to keep the lights on, so it stays small on purpose. We cap at around 600 patients per provider. Fewer patients, longer visits. At Prime Direct Health a visit runs 30 to 60 minutes instead of the rushed slot you’re used to, and you see the same provider each time, Deedee Keeler, FNP-C, instead of whoever happens to be open.
What the membership covers
The flat fee covers the care you get at the practice. Annual physicals and a real sit-down to go through your labs. Same-day or next-day visits when you’re sick. Ongoing management of blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, thyroid, and the rest. The in-office work, like an EKG, a skin lesion removed, a UTI handled, that ingrown toenail you’ve been limping on. Anxiety and depression support, which a rushed practice never has room for. Telehealth when there’s no reason to drive in. And a direct line to text or call, answered the same business day or sooner.
Two things sit outside the membership, and this is where we’re careful to be straight with you. Labs are drawn here and billed separately at near-cost, so work that runs $50 to $200 through insurance is often $5 to $25. Medications work the way they do anywhere else: we prescribe, you fill at your pharmacy, and plenty of common generics come out to a few dollars a month at cash-pay prices. Nothing gets ordered without you knowing the number first. No surprise bill, ever.
What it costs
Ninety dollars a month for adults, and a hundred and twenty for members 65 and up. Family pricing puts everyone on one membership: $90 for the first person, $60 for the second, $30 for each additional member of the household. New members join free, and there’s no annual fee. Returning members pay a one-time $100 re-enrollment fee. The full breakdown lives on the pricing page.
If you have a health savings account, a 2026 federal change lets you pay the membership with pre-tax HSA dollars when you’re on a qualifying high-deductible plan. For most people that lands around 20 to 35 percent off the real cost. The insurance page walks through it.
How it is different from insurance-based primary care
Traditional primary care runs on volume. The practice gets paid per visit and per billing code, so the schedule packs tight and the visits shrink. You pay premiums, copays, and a deductible, and you still wait weeks to be seen and minutes to be heard.
Direct primary care changes what the practice gets paid for. The fee is the same whether you come in once a year or once a month, so there’s no reason to rush you out and every reason to keep you well. You text a question and get an answer instead of booking a visit for it. You finally bring up the thing you’ve been sitting on, and there’s time to actually deal with it.
This is a real tradeoff, and worth understanding before you sign up. You’re paying monthly for primary care you may have felt you were already covering through your premiums. The math usually still comes out ahead once you count the urgent care runs and the rushed referrals you avoid. But go in knowing what you’re buying.
Do you still need insurance?
Yes. People get this part wrong, so we say it plainly: Prime Direct Health is not insurance, and it’s not built to replace it.
The membership handles your primary care. It doesn’t cover the big, rare, expensive events, and you should keep coverage in place for those:
- Hospital stays and surgery
- Specialist care
- Emergency room visits
- Imaging beyond an X-ray, like a CT or MRI
Most members pair Prime Direct Health with a high-deductible or catastrophic plan, and some use a healthshare program instead. Pair it that way and the combined cost often comes in under a traditional plan, while the everyday care is the part most people have never actually had.
Who it suits, and who it doesn’t
Prime Direct Health fits if you want a provider who knows you, real time at your visits, and a price you can see before you agree to it. It works whether you’re in twice a week or twice a decade. The people who have been avoiding care because every visit felt like a fight are usually the ones who get the most out of it.
It’s a harder fit in two situations, and we’d rather say so up front. If you’re on Medicare, there’s a real wrinkle to understand first, since our providers have opted out and a handful of Medicare-covered preventive visits have to happen elsewhere. The senior care page lays it all out. And if what you want is a single office that bills your insurance and runs everything under one roof, a traditional practice may serve you better. That’s a fair call. We’d rather you find the right fit than join and feel pulled in two directions.
The easiest way to find out
You don’t have to decide from a web page. Come meet us. A meet and greet is a free 20-minute conversation with Deedee in the Gilbert office, with no exam, no paperwork, and no pressure to join. You’ll see the space, talk through your situation, and walk out knowing whether Prime Direct Health is for you. If it is, you can start that day. If it’s not, we’ll point you toward something that fits.