After completing PA school at MCG, Davis Mellick, PA-C with Evans Direct Primary Care, worked in a variety of specialties including Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, Neurosurgery, and Urgent Care. Through those experiences, Davis felt the pull towards primary care. “In the ER setting, when someone comes in with a heart attack, you're scrambling and playing catch-up,” explains Davis. “You’re trying to fix a problem as quickly as you can that has been brewing for twenty years. Primary care can prevent it from ever getting to that point.”
After researching primary care practices, Davis chose to pursue the direct primary care (DPC) model. Because the practice relies on membership fees for compensation and not insurance payments, Davis and his staff can better focus their time on patients in the office and use telemedicine when appropriate. Although many patients do have insurance, many find the fees associated with DPC are less than copays and deductibles associated with insurance plans.
The DPC model provides benefits for businesses as well as individuals. “We've had a significant increase in the number of businesses that have joined in providing DPC as a benefit to their employees. This not only helps with their employees’ health, but with preventative care, can decrease sick days and trips to urgent care and emergency rooms,” explains Davis. “From what we've seen, employers see incredible value behind this. It is one of the less costly benefits an employer can provide, but it's one that employees are more satisfied about.”
With growth comes exciting changes. “We've seen some amazing growth and a lot of recognition within the community, which is humbling,” says Davis. “Because of our growth, we hired another Physician Assistant in January… her name is Kelsey Clegg PA-C. In the fall, we’re moving to a new, larger location (within eyesight of the current location) and we will be formally merging with two other DPCs that we've always worked with to rebrand as Welcome Health. This will give us a stronger community presence, better negotiating power to further decrease costs for imaging/medication/labs and accommodate larger businesses that want to enroll.”
Evans Direct Primary Care is located at 1202 Town Park Lane, Suite 105 in Evans. For more information on how to become an individual or business member, visit www.evansdpc.com or call (706) 739-5848.
Benefits of direct primary care at-a-glance
Access to care
“Our patients pay a membership, or subscription, which means that if a patient needs to be seen one time in a month or five times in a month, there's no difference in their cost. So patients are not getting ‘punished’ for being sick.”
Cost transparency, flat lab fees, and on-site pharmacy
“One of the beauties of DPC is we can give our patients exactly what the cost is going to be for services, tests, and labs done in-house. We also have approximately 200 generic medications that we keep on hand, which we buy and sell at wholesale prices.”
Benefits for business owners
“DPC can be used by small and large businesses to not only provide primary care services for their staff, but it can reduce their costs by decreasing the utilization of their health insurance. The easy access to medical staff helps keep their employees healthy and, with prevention, decreases miss time as well as urgent care and hospital visits.”
Direct access to providers
“Our patients have direct communication with the practice and with their providers, including through telemedicine, for better continuity and treatment.”