Construction is settling on the 200 block of Southeast 1st Street in Battle Ground as a medical practice with a different approach to primary care has moved into their permanent offices this month.
Patient Direct Care has moved into its finished building within the last few weeks after providing services in a modest setup across the street from their new site. The practice operates on the direct primary care model, foregoing insurance plans to cut on costs while providing more personal care to patients.
Dino Ramzi, president of PDC, said that often people think of a subscription-based service as being something more of a luxury, but explained that his practice was more “meat and potatoes” basic primary care.
“I don’t know how doing the right thing for the patient became conflated with care for the elite, that you had to pay extra just to be properly cared for,” Ramzi said.
He sees several benefits of direct primary care, from relative cost savings gained by nixing the need to bill insurance, to having ample availability for scheduling appointments, to having a provider that will “actually answer the phones” as opposed to an automated phone tree.
That more personal focus of the practice is part of the philosophy of PDC Ramzi said, adding the focus on providing good first-line care, appropriate testing and solid follow-up was something that got lost in other healthcare models where doctors rely on patient visits to fund their operations, and where patients might skip a visit because of cost.
“My angle is really a public health angle, and I see that the health system doesn’t work very well for a lot of people,” Ramzi said.
The idea to work in direct primary care came from his years working at community health centers across the country where he saw the dysfunctions of the current health system.
During Ramzi’s tenure at Lacamas Medical Group, the idea for the primary direct care model came to fruition through EverMed, a direct provider network started by Lacamas staff, first for uninsured patients and then with the help of agreements with employers to practices like PDC in Battle Ground.
Ramzi said that currently two local businesses have added the direct primary care as an added layer to their existing insurance, helping to provide a base of 500 patients for his practice. Though visits are manageable now, he said that if scheduling starts to become a conflict he will hire more staff.
Ramzi said those frustrated with working through insurance just to take care of routine visits to the doctor, or those who prefer a personal touch in their physicians, would be able to appreciate what PDC offers.
“A lot of it falls under the moniker of bedside manner or ‘old fashioned care’ which is really odd to me, because I still think it’s proper care,” Ramzi said.
