Industry Ranks Direct Primary Care Over Other Models of Care to Remove Healthcare Barriers in U.S., According to Hint Health Trends Report

The findings support DPC member growth by more than 241% according to data collected from over 3,500 clinicians and 800,000 members from 2017-2021

Hint Health, the leading provider of membership management, billing, and direct contracting infrastructure for direct primary care (DPC) and membership-based providers, today announced the Trends in Direct Primary Care Report, which compiles available evidence collected from industry leaders to better capture the true impact and potential of DPC. DPC is aimed at solving industry challenges stemming from the overwhelming complexity of the existing fee-for-service insurance paradigm, which is one of the major factors contributing to the unsustainable healthcare situation in the U.S. The report is divided into sections for demand, supply, and laws and regulations governing how and where DPC can operate.

“From the data presented, it’s clear the fee-for-service care model is not an effective pathway to resolve our health system’s greatest challenges for cutting costs. Working to eliminate preventative care services will only increase the number of costly chronic conditions down the road. Clinicians and employers are seeing the impact of the movement to do right by the whole system,” said Zak Holdsworth, CEO and Co-Founder, Hint Health. “It’s incredibly important that more clinicians and employers consider adopting the DPC model to protect consumers’ health and simultaneously shed the misaligned incentives and wasteful bureaucracy of the fee-for-service status quo.”

The rising costs in healthcare are discouraging patients from seeking basic, preventative care services

• The high cost of care in the U.S. continues to negatively impact Americans, with 63% of private healthcare consumers ranking the cost of care as the most dissatisfying aspect of their current healthcare option.
• In contrast to the trend of rising insurance premiums, DPC memberships remain affordable. From 2017 to 2020, the median annual price of an individual, retail DPC membership changed only slightly, from $77 to $75. Similarly, the median price an employer paid in 2021 for a monthly DPC membership for a family of four remained low at $158 despite employer-sponsored health insurance premiums reaching an all-time high the following year.
• DPC memberships continue to lure in members with an average annual growth of 36%, reaching a total growth of 241% from 2017-2021.

Clinicians report they are better supported with this model of care, experiencing greater autonomy, fair compensation, and enhanced engagement with their practice

• From 2017-2021, the number of active DPC clinicians per 100K people increased 159% in comparison to only a 6% increase overall in primary care providers (PCPs) per 100K people.
• The power of DPC for providers is especially apparent among practices that join a network, with affiliated practices experiencing a 402% growth in active members after three years compared to 27% growth among non-affiliated DPC practices.

The findings were assembled from published articles and studies, the U.S. Census, and two proprietary data sources – the Hint Health DPC Consumer Insight Survey and the Hint Health Database, which contains the largest dataset of information on the economics and development of DPC.

“More than half of private healthcare consumers ranked the cost of care as the most dissatisfying aspect of their current healthcare option. Healthcare costs are steadily outpacing income growth and inflation,” said Aimee Leidich, Head of Operations, Hint Health. “Alternatively, DPC memberships remain affordable with little of the price inflation seen elsewhere.”

This year’s Hint Summit, taking place in-person June 7-9, 2022 at ReelWorks in Denver, CO, will feature additional insights from the report, spearheaded by national thought leaders, technology entrepreneurs, and clinician leaders.

To request access to the full report, visit here.

*Methodology: All data in this report were analyzed by the Hint Health Data Analytics team using published articles and studies, the U.S. Census, and two proprietary data sources managed and analyzed by Hint Health: the Hint Health DPC Consumer Insight Survey and the Hint Health Database.

The Hint Health DPC Consumer Insight Survey was a nine-question survey conducted by the market research firm Dynata in September 2021. The survey sample consisted of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 25 and over from Dynata’s pool of 31 million consumers.

The Hint Health Database sample includes over 3,500 DPC clinicians, plus 800,000 members from accounts on the HintOS platform with at least one paying member any time from Jan 1, 2017 - Dec 31, 2021.

About Hint Health

Hint Health powers forward-thinking provider organizations seeking the freedom to operate partially or fully outside of today’s insurance-based system. The HintOS™ platform eliminates complexity with direct-to-consumer membership management and effortlessly scales employer direct contracting for independent provider organizations, including direct primary care (DPC) practices & networks, virtual-first care, and near-site/onsite clinics. The HIPAA-compliant, ISO27001/SOC 2 Type 2 certified platform has processed over $1B in payments and is approaching 1M lives under management. As a leading authority in DPC, Hint produces Hint Summit, the largest annual conference for the industry taking place this year on June 7-9, 2022 in Denver, CO.

Hint’s vision is to redesign the healthcare system to enable easy access to high quality, affordable care. To learn more, visit www.hint.com and follow @HintHealth.

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