What is DPC Learning Ecosystem The Numbers Questions For Practices Documentation
The on-ramp to Direct Primary Care

Learn Direct Primary Care.

There's a different way to practice medicine. No insurance. Longer visits. Smaller panels. Thousands of physicians are already doing it, in every state.

This page is the on-ramp. The curriculum, the reporting, the research, and the state-by-state rules. Everything a physician needs to understand DPC before deciding if it's for them.

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A physician opening her independent Direct Primary Care clinic for the day.
Section 1. What is DPC

Direct Primary Care, in one paragraph.

Patients pay their doctor a flat monthly fee. The doctor doesn't bill insurance. That single change reshapes the entire practice.

What changes when insurance comes out of the room

Panel size drops.

Most DPC doctors cap their panel between 400 and 800 patients. The average employed primary care physician carries 2,500. According to the DPCA Mapper, this is the biggest single driver of how a DPC day actually feels.

Visits get longer.

A typical DPC visit runs 30 to 60 minutes. Not 7. Not 10.

The paperwork goes away.

No CPT coding, no prior authorizations, no claim denials to chase.

Overhead drops.

A mature DPC practice often runs around 20 percent overhead. A traditional fee-for-service practice often runs around 60 percent. That gap is why the financial model works even with far fewer patients.

That's the whole model. Everything on this page builds on it.

Section 2. Why this is worth your time

The math doesn't change on its own.

You might be a resident sitting in a lecture hall wondering whether you really have to sign the employment contract everyone else is signing. Or you might already be five years into practice, watching your panel grow while your days get shorter with every patient.

Either way, the math doesn't change on its own.

The fee-for-service system wasn't designed for the doctors inside it. It wasn't even designed for the patients. The result is a version of medicine where most physicians spend half their day fighting insurance companies and the other half racing a clock.

DPC is a different answer. The movement is past the fringe stage. What's missing is a clear on-ramp. That's what this page is for.

Section 3. The DPC Learning Ecosystem

Three places to keep learning.

Sorted by how much time you want to spend and how deep you want to go.

Primary. The curriculum.

DPC University.

The structured curriculum.

Nine modules, built by and with practicing DPC physicians. It moves you from "I've heard of DPC" to "I have a launch plan."

  • 1. DPC Overview and Key Principles
  • 2. Legal and Regulatory
  • 3. Practice Logistics
  • 4. Infrastructure and Vendors
  • 5. Custom Business Plan
  • 6. Marketing Strategies
  • 7. Contracting Directly with Employers
  • 8. Being Part of a DPC Network
  • 9. 90-Day Launch Timeline

CME-eligible. Institutional licensing available for residency programs and state health plans.

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Secondary. The reporting.

DPC Insider.

The news and podcast home.

Weekly reporting on the DPC movement. Long-form interviews with practicing DPC physicians. Policy, legal, and market developments that actually affect how you practice. Short clips, full articles, full podcast episodes.

If DPC University is the textbook, DPC Insider is the kitchen table where physicians talk about what's really happening.

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Tertiary. The AI guide.Coming soon

ChatDPC.ai.

The AI chatbot trained on the DPC knowledge base.

ChatDPC.ai is an AI chatbot built and maintained by DPC Pro, trained on the DPC University curriculum and the entire DPC ecosystem's knowledge base, guided by the experience of Dr. Forrest.

Ask it anything. The DPC model. State regulations. Hybrid transition math. Employer contracts. Panel economics. Medicare opt-out. It answers in plain language, tuned to your situation.

It isn't live yet. Put your email on the waitlist and you'll be first in when it opens.

Section 4. The DPC Research Library

The parts of the landscape most physicians never see laid out clearly.

Beyond the curriculum and the reporting, we publish in-depth research on the parts of the DPC landscape most physicians never see laid out clearly.

Available on DPC Insider:

The mapper and directory research.

Why the public DPC directories fall short and what it would take to make finding a DPC doctor actually work.

GPO landscape report.

How group purchasing functions in DPC. Which GPOs exist, what they charge, what they save, and how to evaluate membership for your practice.

Competitive marketing landscape analysis.

How DPC is being marketed to physicians, where the movement's voice is underdeveloped, and what that means for the next five years.

Social media landscape analysis.

What's happening around DPC on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Reddit, and what physicians are doing that actually works.

State regulatory resources

Every state handles DPC a little differently. Before you transition, you need the rules where you practice.

Start with the DPC Frontier resources hub. It's the most complete public reference for state-level DPC law.

Most physicians start with their own state and widen out from there.

Section 6. If you're earlier in your career

You don't have to sign the default contract.

A young DPC physician at her desk in her own independent practice.

You might be a PGY-2 resident, a PGY-3 staring at employment contracts, or a new attending who already knows the default isn't going to work for you.

The questions you're probably asking:

  • Can I actually do this right out of residency? Yes. Many DPC physicians launch directly from residency. DPC University Module 9 walks through a realistic 90-day launch timeline.
  • What about my student loans? The math is survivable in DPC. Panel economics, employer contracts, and supplemental revenue often add up faster than residents expect. DPC University Module 5 walks through the personalized business-plan math.
  • What about malpractice? Coverage is available for DPC physicians. Rates are often lower than in traditional primary care because of the time-per-visit profile and lower claim frequency. DPC University Module 2 covers your options. The DPC Frontier malpractice resource at dpcfrontier.com/medical-malpractice is the best public starting point.
  • What about Medicare? Most DPC physicians formally opt out of Medicare. The opt-out process is summarized at dpcfrontier.com/opting-out-of-medicare and covered in detail in Module 2.
  • Where do I start? DPC University, Module 1. It's built for exactly this moment.
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Section 7. If you're already practicing

You don't have to blow your practice up on day one.

You might be employed and running on empty. You might be in an independent group that's open to change. You might be ready to go solo.

You don't have to blow your practice up on day one. The transition is often gradual.

The hybrid path

Many physicians hybridize first. You reserve a small number of visit slots for DPC patients and grow the panel slowly. Dr. Forrest's framework looks like this:

  • One 30-minute DPC slot every 10 clinic days for your first 10 DPC patients.
  • One more slot per 10 new DPC patients.
  • At 100 DPC patients, you're running one DPC slot every day and you can extend each visit to 45 minutes.
  • At 500 DPC patients, you're running a full half-day as DPC and a half-day as traditional. You can cap there, or keep converting.

The 50/50 economics

A mature 50/50 hybrid practice typically carries overhead around 39 percent, compared with roughly 60 percent in a fully traditional practice. Dr. Forrest's modeling puts the net salary for a 50/50 hybrid family physician around $390,000 per year while seeing about 18 patients total per day. A fully converted DPC practice lands meaningfully higher with fewer patients seen.

These are modeled figures, not guarantees. Your results depend on panel pricing, local market, overhead structure, and payer mix.

Patient attrition is real

Roughly two-thirds of insured patients don't follow their doctor into DPC. Worth knowing up front.

Interestingly, the patients who do follow aren't predictable by income. They're predictable by relationship strength. The patients who stay are usually the ones who feel closest to you. Plan for the attrition. Don't be surprised by it.

Staffing changes

A full DPC conversion usually means letting go of billing, coding, and clearinghouse staff. For most physicians who transition, this is the hardest part of the process. DPC University Module 3 covers how to handle it. The honest version is that the hardest part of going DPC is often people, not paperwork.

Intrapractice friction

In group practices, if only some physicians convert to DPC and others don't, resentment is common. The cleanest path is offering every physician in the group the option. Those who stay traditional often benefit too, because they inherit the DPC physician's former insurance-based panel.

All of the above is drawn from practicing DPC physicians who've already done the transition and is covered in greater depth inside DPC University.

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An established DPC physician in her warmly-lit independent office.
Section 8. Common questions

What physicians usually ask first.

Do I need to leave insurance-based practice completely?

No. Hybrid practices are common and often the right first step.

Does DPC work outside of major cities?

Yes. Rural and underserved areas are some of the strongest DPC markets, because patients often don't have good primary care options at all. Many successful DPC practices are in small towns.

Is DPC legal in every state?

DPC is legal in every state. The specific regulations vary. State-by-state law is summarized at dpcfrontier.com/states.

Can I still see Medicare patients?

You can, but there are rules. Most DPC physicians formally opt out of Medicare. The opt-out process is summarized at dpcfrontier.com/opting-out-of-medicare.

Does DPC replace insurance for patients?

No. Most DPC patients keep a high-deductible or catastrophic plan for hospital and specialist care. DPC covers primary care. It doesn't replace emergency or specialty coverage.

Do patients actually sign up?

Yes. Thousands of DPC practices are operating today with full panels. DPC Insider publishes interviews with practicing physicians on how they built theirs.

How long does it take to launch?

A focused launch often runs 90 days from decision to first patient. DPC University Module 9 walks through the timeline in detail.

Section 10. Where to start

Pick whichever fits where you are right now.

You can do one. You can do all three.

1

I want a structured curriculum.

Nine modules that move you from "I've heard of DPC" to "I have a launch plan." CME-eligible.

Start DPC University
2

I want to stay up to date on the movement.

Weekly news, long-form interviews, podcast episodes, and research on the parts of DPC most physicians never see laid out clearly.

Subscribe to DPC Insider
3

I want in line for ChatDPC.ai.Coming soon

The AI chatbot trained on the DPC University curriculum and the broader DPC knowledge base. Email capture only for now.

Disclosure

Pricing varies by practice, location, and services offered. The figures on this page reflect industry ranges from the DPCA and DPC Frontier. Each DPC practice independently sets its own membership pricing and service fees. Lab and medication costs depend on the specific tests and medications ordered and the wholesale agreements in place. Physician dispensing regulations vary by state. DPC University salary and overhead figures are modeled ranges, not guaranteed outcomes. State regulatory resources are linked from the DPC Frontier public resources hub and are not affiliated with DPC Pro. DPC Pro recommends that every physician verify current state regulations before making practice decisions.