What employers should know about primary care models

Primary care models differ in how doctors are paid, how patients access care and the support they receive over time. Understanding those differences can help employers build a strategy that fits their workforce and evaluate whether it is improving total cost of care.

Traditional primary care

Traditional primary care is generally accessed through a health plan, with practices paid primarily for individual visits and services. These practices provide preventive care, and can treat everyday health concerns.

Appointment availability, time with patients and support between visits vary. Payment based primarily on visits can make it harder to deliver proactive outreach and ongoing care coordination.

Direct Primary Care vs. Advanced Primary Care: What is the difference?

Direct Primary Care

Direct primary care, or DPC, uses a recurring membership fee to cover a defined set of primary care services, generally replacing per-visit insurance billing for those services. The patient or employer may pay the membership.DPC practices often have smaller patient panels, longer appointments and more direct communication with the doctor or care team. Included services typically carry no additional visit charge, while services outside the agreement may cost extra.DPC complements health coverage for services beyond the membership, such as hospitalizations and specialty care.

Advanced Primary Care

Advanced primary care, or APC, emphasizes an ongoing relationship with a doctor or care team, supported by timely access, proactive engagement and comprehensive care.The model gives clinicians time and resources to identify concerns earlier, manage more health needs directly and coordinate care when patients need specialists or other services.Payment arrangements vary and may include membership fees, population-based payments or visit payments combined with value-based components. Quality measurement and accountability are important, but employers should understand what each arrangement actually measures and requires.

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What matters beyond the model

One contract gives you access to a national marketplace.

Aligned brings independent doctors together into a single, carefully curated marketplace. Every doctor is vetted, and every practice is held to a consistent standard of care.

Doctors paid to keep members healthy.

Independent advanced primary care doctors offer a depth of care that goes well beyond the annual physical, with more time per member and real attention to the conditions that drive cost.

We get your members into care before their costs climb.

We find rising-risk members, reach out personally, and get each one set up with a doctor and a first visit booked, before conditions become expensive.

We put our own fees on the line for your results.

Aligned ties its fees to measurable outcomes, so we only succeed when your costs come down. It is the difference between a marketplace that introduces you to doctors and one that answers for them.

What employers get with Aligned

19%

Lower healthcare costs

~70%

of members engaged are high-risk

128%

Year 1 ROI

See your savings potential

1 contract with Aligned gives employers more than 3,000 in-person primary care locations across all 50 states. Plus specialty care for MSK, GI, neurology, high-risk pregnancy, dermatology, and more.

Tell us where your employees are located and we'll map the advanced primary care coverage available to them.

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