What if I need to be hospitalized?
With more personalized care and the needed time to work together to keep you as healthy as possible, you are less likely to require hospitalization for chronic illnesses. Yet, if an emergency arises, viable options are available. The specific answer to this question is rooted in your particular medical coverage or lack thereof.
At this time, Open Hands DPC is not offering hospital care. Should the need for hospitalization arise, providing our clinic name and number upon admission or presentation to the emergency room will help facilitate open communication between the emergency room and hospital providers and your physician.
Generally speaking, the DPC model works well for individuals and families that:
continue to use a low premium/high deductible insurance plan - Low premium/high deductible (sometimes called catastrophic coverage) allows the low cost of the DPC to keep your anticipated medical expenses low and without surprises - while saving back for “rainy days”. Then, if life throws a curve ball and hospitalization, surgery or other high cost medical event happens you will have saved money to put towards covering the higher deductible (that will only be needed if such an emergency were to happen).
have a form of cost sharing plan - Cost sharing plans most often operate on a per medical event basis including hospitalizations.
would otherwise be self-pay regardless of where they seek care - Often discounts are available to those in a self-pay situation when discussed with the hospital directly
In each scenario, if no emergency befalls, then you will simply have saved that money. We encourage you to explore your options and see how you can use your hard earned money best to care for and protect yourself and loved ones!