Figure 2. Ranking of DPC benefits by practice model.

Benefit #1: Removing the administrative burden of insurance paperwork and pre-approvals will improve physician satisfaction and reduce practice overhead, as fewer administrative employees will be needed (p=0.001). Benefit #2: Smaller patient panels will enable the physician to spend more time with each patient improving the doctor-patient relationship, educating the patient, and getting to the root of problems (p=0.197). Benefit #3: Smaller patient panels enable the physician to be available to patients when and how it is convenient for them. This promotes the use of primary care and is likely to catch problems before they become more serious and prevent over-use of urgent care, emergency departments, specialists, and hospital services (p=0.008). Benefit #4: By removing primary care from the insurance system (which will lower insurance premiums) and improving the health of patients, DPC is likely to move us towards the Quadruple Aim of enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing healthcare spending, and improving the work life of healthcare providers (p=0.816). Benefit #5: Since the physician works directly for the patient, they must be responsive to patient needs and preferences as patients are free to end their DPC membership at any time (p=0.391). Statistical significance at the 5% level determined by the Mann-Whitney U test.