Why should I join?

Avoid the hassles of insurance for primary care
• Make healthcare decisions with your provider, not your insurance company
• The healthcare you deserve at a price for any budget

Easy access to medical care
• Average wait times in the office of less than one minute
• Same-day appointments are generally available for urgent sick visits
• Quick access to your provider via phone or through the Patient Passport

Providers who take time, listen, and care
• 30-minute appointments (typically three times that of a traditional primary care office)
• Telehealth appointments available
• Home visits available ($10/mile)

What about insurance or catastrophic coverage?

Direct Primary Care is NOT insurance. We encourage all of our members to find either an insurance plan or a health sharing plan to help cover the costs of catastrophic illness or injury. Hospital bills that come from an accident or from a serious disease are simply too big to cover on your own and the medical assistance that you will need to deal with these types of situations is more than Hickory Medical is built to provide.

Members of Hickory Medical routinely use their insurance or government program (Medicare or Medicaid) for medical procedures and specialist visits that happen outside of the Hickory Medical, as well as for prescription medications and supplies. While we will see a patient with any insurance or no insurance, there are two types of plans that work particularly well with Direct Primary Care. Many of our patients carry some traditional form of insurance with a high deductible. With these high deductible plans, patient's premium savings are often much more than the cost of membership, and their insurance is there to cover the cost of significant incidents. Another option that is increasingly popular among individual Hickory Medical members is health-sharing plans such as Sedera. These types of plans are recognized under the Affordable Care Act and allow participants to avoid penalties for non-insurance. They are more lightly regulated, so any plan must be carefully considered. Generally, these health-sharing plans offer more financial support (have fairly low amounts before costs are shared), which they achieve by having significantly lower overhead and, in many cases, somewhat less comprehensive coverage. Hickory Medical is a Sedera Affiliate and can help answer questions and help with individual and company enrollment. Please reach out to one of our team members for more information.

Membership

To provide you with the best value and the highest quality of care, we work for you, not for an insurance company. We do not bill insurance for any services provided. With this Direct Primary Care Model, you pay a monthly membership fee and as a member, there is a low cost scheduling fee and many services within our office that are provided at no additional charge. Membership fees are paid using automatic payment with your credit, debit card, or from your checking account.

Services provided for members at no additional charge

• Same-day appointments are typically available for urgent sick visits

• Communication with your provider by phone or the Patient Passport

• Basic labs for members included in membership (BMP, CMP, CBC, TSH, HgbA1C, FLP)

• Discounted pricing on other labs (with wholesale pricing for Hickory Plus and no fees for Hickory Complete Care)

• Discounted pricing on in-house acute-care medications (with wholesale pricing for Hickory Plus and no fees for Hickory Complete Care)

• Discounted pricing for in-house procedures (no charges for in-house procedures with Hickory Complete Care)

This model works because we reduce the overhead cost associated with insurance and pass the savings on to our patients. The costs of salaries as well as other fixed costs, such as rent and equipment, are paid by the membership fees. The scheduling fee (for office visits) and procedure fee (for minor surgeries or injection of medications) is used to pay for variable overhead, such as disposable equipment, basic lab service, and costs associated with technology and scheduling. You will know all charges at the time of your visit and pricing is completely transparent. Vaccines are not available at this time, but vaccines are available through the health department and some can be obtained through a pharmacy using insurance or cash pricing.

Individuals & Families

Our biggest priority is healthcare and so we want our energy to focus entirely on taking care of the needs of our patients. To make this possible, we require some form of auto-payment using credit/debit card or checking account as part of membership. This allows us to keep fees very low and helps us to avoid the pricing games that are being played in many medical practices.

Medicare

We can contract directly with Medicare beneficiaries to provide primary care services, but we cannot bill Medicare for any charges. Prior to joining, Medicare Beneficiaries must sign a private contract acknowledging this fact, and this is signed by Medicare-eligible patients every two years.