In my previous Integrative Medicine practice we billed cash for our services which would be classified as cash fee-for-service. In this model, while I may have been serving my patients, because my time was used for billing, every time they engaged me they got billed.
While as a business, we did what we had to do to survive, I think for both parties it was not optimal. We experimented with membership model, but it had never taken off because we did not rid ourselves of fee for services model. We failed to take a plunge into membership model.
So, for this time, I studied direct primary care(DPC) model and found out, to my surprise, that DPC is rapidly growing in the US. Case in point, I left Kansas City about 3 years ago when a DPC practice opened up. Now it has several providers.
Because I love integrative medicine (I view functional medicine is a specialization within integrative medicine utilizing tests to explore potential root causes of illness), I want to create a sustainable model for integrative medicine for the rest of us. Direct Integrative Care was created for the environment where we can work together with patients for a monthly fee probably similar to an upscale gym. In return, our members get 15% discount on supplements (through whole script), access to whole sale price functional medicine lab + 7% charged by our partner, and access to my professional services in return for a monthly fee.