One year ago, my career was really picking up steam. I had been promoted to Chief Medical Officer with the urgent care company I had been with since finishing residency. I was overseeing 9 urgent care centers across the State of Alabama. I had employees to direct, processes to develop, and a great salary to boot. Then a little thing called COVID19 hit, and the entire healthcare world was turned on its head. Despite the challenges, I pressed on, helping to shape our company’s response to the global crisis, reviewing new data, strategizing, and doing everything in my power to keep the company afloat. And, you know what? It worked! We made it through the toughest parts of the pandemic- the lack of testing, the lack of supplies, the lack of knowledge. Recommendations and guidelines were shifting almost weekly, yet we were able to push through and serve our communities when they needed us most.

But through all that, I realized something- I wasn’t able to provide the kind of help I truly wanted to. On every long, grueling urgent care shift I worked, I saw patients with numerous uncontrolled medical conditions. When asked who was taking care of them, the response was often, “No one. I haven’t been able to see my doctor in a year.” Whether it was the loss of insurance, PCP offices refusing new patients, or dissatisfaction with the healthcare system in general, these folks were not getting the care they needed. Which led me to some thinking- Why is good healthcare so darned hard to get around here?

Here’s a sad truth- About 32% of Primary Care doctors report being burned out. This means they are dissatisfied with their careers, feel overworked and undervalued, and often wish they could get out of the system entirely. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the biggest is that private insurance companies, medicare, and medicaid have made it nearly impossible to provide good care for our patients. Doctors spend as much or more time documenting on computers to satisfy the requirements of these payers as they do face to face with their patients. Since the insurance companies are the ones paying the bills, doctors have no choice in the matter! In healthcare, as with any other business, you work for whoever is paying you. So doctors in the mainstream fee for service world are not truly working for their patients. They're working for the insurance companies, who will do anything in their power to refuse coverage, or at least pay less than what a service is worth. Because of the huge financial and time constraints placed on these doctors, they are forced to see 20-30 patients per day, spend hours on documentation, and carry patient panels of 2,000-3,000 patients each. Don’t get me wrong- These are not bad doctors. They’re good doctors trapped in a bad system. So I decided to step outside of that broken system and do something different.

Near the end of 2020, I took a leap and filed the paperwork to form Auburn Direct Primary Care, LLC. I gave up my steady paycheck and stepped down from my position as CMO on January first, then began focusing all my energy on starting up this practice. My goal from the outset was to provide high quality, personalized care for my patients, unencumbered by the tyranny of the insurance companies. In my practice, I can accept whoever I want, even the tough and time consuming cases. I can take text messages from my patients since I don’t have to force them to come into the office to get paid. I can spend time on educating my patients, listening to their concerns, and treating them as a whole person. And I can do it all without putting my patients into debt over their healthcare. 

I recently had a patient text me at 7:30 am to tell me she had been awake and in pain since 2:30 that morning. I was able to see her in the office as soon as we opened at 9 that day, evaluate and diagnose her, administer medications, and have her feeling better by 10. This was done without a copay, and she paid a total of $4 for her injection and the medicine I sent her home with. Oh, and while she was there, I was able to provide her with $750 worth of diabetes medication FOR FREE. She came in crying tears of pain and left crying tears of joy. This is why I started ADPC. To take real care of people on my terms, not those of an insurance company. 

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     Do I worry about whether my new practice will succeed? Every day! Direct Primary Care is a new concept that few people in our area have ever heard of. As with any new idea, it's a risk. But I believe in what we are doing, and it's a risk worth taking. I get to practice medicine the way it should be. The way every bright eyed new medical student thinks they'll practice. I get to put my patients first, and I've got no one else dictating how that needs to look. I believe that Direct Primary Care is the solution to so much that is broken in our current system, and I am thrilled to bring this new model to our community.

-Kyle Adams, MD

Dr. Adams practices Family Medicine at Auburn Direct Primary Care. He is actively accepting new patients, and we would love to have you join the ADPC family. If you’re ready to get started, click Here to enroll with us now!‍