Learn
- DPC Frontier
- DPC Conferences
- DPC Nation
- Facebook Groups
- DPC Alliance
- Regional DPC alliances
- Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation
- Doug Farrago's Guide
- Julie Gunther's DPC business plan guide
Viability
- Make sure your DPC practice is feasible
- Consider working as an employed DPC physician
- Check if there are any legal hurdles to DPC practices in your state
- Do you have a means of acquiring patients initially?
- Are you likeable?
Initial Decisions
- Pick a business name for your practice
- Pick a marketing name for your practice
- Decide on your business hours
- Decide whether to give your practice a specialist "flavor"
- Decide whether to run a "pure" or "hybrid" practice
Pricing
- Choose membership prices
- Decide on a re-enrollment policy
- Rx markups
- Lab markups
- Per-visit fee
- Consider one-time cash-pay visits for non-members
- Consider one-year contracts
- Billing cycles
Scope of practice
- Expand your mind
- In-office dispensing
- Joint injections
- Minor procedures
- Casting
- Cosmetic procedures
- OMT
- Vaccines
- Immigration/DOT physicals
- Stress/VO max testing
- Migraine treatments
- Bone density testing
- Body composition analysis
- Travel medicine
- plebotomy
- CPAP/sleep testing
- Coordination of hospital care
- obstetrics
Incorporation
- Determine what business structure is best for your needs
- Draft Articles of Organization/Incorporation
- Draft an operating agreement/bylaws for the company
- Find a registered agent
- Incorporate the business through your state
- File a DBA with your state
- Apply for your Employer Identification Number (EIN)
Forms
- Patient Agreement
- Release of Records form
- Billing Authorization form
- Patient History form
- If hiring: Employee Contract
- Optionally, run everything by a lawyer
Business
- Draft a business plan
- If you need a loan: do your research
- Consider completing a small business workshop
- Administration and Logistics
- Set up accounting workflow
- Hiring
- If you have employees: set up payroll
- Open a checking account for your business
- Apply for a business credit card
- Update your contact info with everyone!
Office
- Think about your ideal space
- Decide whether to buy, rent, or lease
- Find a location
- Arrange the front office space
- Figure out the front-office check-in process
- If you have employees: set up HR/payroll software
Insurance Opt-out
- Decide when to opt out of Medicare
- Complete an opt-out affidavit
- Mail affidavit at the appropriate time
- Find an Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN) form online
- Notify the state Medicaid program that you would like to privately contract with patients
- Private insurance
Vendors
- Join one or more group purchasing organization (GPO)
- If you're doing in-office dispensing: sign up with a wholesale medication distributor
- If you're NOT doing in-office dispensing: help your patients save money at the
- pharmacy
- Establish a relationship with a lab
- Establish a relationship with an imaging center
- Establish relationships with other providers
- eBay and Amazon
Website
- Select a domain name for your website
- Make a website for your practice
- Set up email hosting
Software
- Electronic health record
- Membership management
- Patient communication
- Inventory management service
- E-prescribing
- E-faxing
- Dictation software
- Text expander/macros
- Virtual assistant
- Check out these other useful services: Dropbox, Rubicon, IntakeQ, FollowUpThen.
Insurance
- Malpractice insurance
- Worker's compensation
- Disability insurance
- Business interruption insurance
- Commercial property insurance (if applicable)
- Commercial auto insurance (if applicable)
CLIA
- AKA how to avoid the need for CLIA compliance
- Decide whether to do any in-office testing
- To do CLIA-waived tests: file for a waiver
- Consider offering physician-performed microscopy (PPM) services
- Maintain best practices
- Set up a reminder to renew your waiver every two years
HIPAA
- Determine if you are a covered entity under HIPAA
- Check for state laws regarding patient privacy
- Complete a Security Risk Assessment
- Draft a Notice of Privacy Policies (NPP)
- Draft a Release of Records Authorization Form
- Draft a Patient Consent Form
- Gather and maintain proof of HIPAA compliance
- Gather Business Associate Agreements
OSHA
- If you have zero employees, you're done already!
- Find a biohazard/waste disposal service near you
- Follow best practices when dealing with hazardous chemicals/waste
- Maintain a list of hazardous chemicals in your office
- Buy a fire extinguisher and mount it on the wall
- Put your employees through annual OSHA training
- Know how to report incidents to OSHA
- With more than 10 employees: draft an emergency action plan
- With more than 10 employees do incident reporting and logging
Marketing
- Practice teaching people about DPC
- Create two Google My Business (GMB) profiles
- Make a Facebook Page for your practice
- Claim your profiles on online review sites
- Get professional photos taken
- Brainstorm ways to get free exposure
- Get a logo
- Custom printed stationery and marketing materials
- Disseminate your marketing materials
- Ask for referrals
- Check for retiring physicians nearby
- Network with other small business owners
- Reach out to nearby self-insurance TPAs/brokers
- Add your practice to the DPC Frontier mapper
- Talk to the specialists you refer to
- Consider paying for advertising
- Make advertising partnerships
- Set up a referral program