The average I've heard (since I'm not at 600 yet) is 18-24 months. That's with a cold start. If you have a regular practice for a year or two before that, I bet it would be much faster - I bet BD could fill a DPC in a few weeks if he so chose.
There is a great series of podcasts on itunes that I enjoyed when getting started in my practice.
The biggest factor that I think about often (as I sit in one now) is the massive expansion of urgent care centers. My middlin' sized southern city has 15 that I can think of off the top of my head. Every other patient I see says some variety of "I called my PCP and they told me to come here".
That was actually the first book on that list I read. It's a very good read.Charles Koch. oh lawd no!
the single best book on the topic is Dale Carnegie's how to win friends and influence people.
As of now, you can't be a medicare provider and see medicare in a DPC. I expect that to change, but we're not there yet.
There are certainly work-arounds for most problems. Its the nice thing about any type of private practice - since us doctors make the rules, we can decide if we want to change them. If BD, Atlas, or I decide we want to see a patient for free, we can. Personally, I'd love to reach a point where I can afford to see a decent number of patients for either free or, more likely, significantly reduced costs (mainly because if its free, people tend to not value it).
Its possible, though fairly difficult to achieve. 2 basic ways to get there:
I'm assuming because they started recently and are not at capacity yet. It might just be benevolence though
i think it's wrong to assume freedom from interference and making a lot of money are somehow mutually exclusive
Honestly? Because I'm following AtlasMD and that's what they charge. Plus, cost of living here is similar to Kansas so it works. If I was somewhere more expensive I might charge more. Plus, it works.
