Plum Health Blog
Coronavirus Update for Detroit on April 5th, 2021
The house is on fire.
Michigan reported 8,413 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the state's total pandemic case count to 692,206.
There were 8,413 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday - we’re getting close to that big spike that we had around the holidays in November and December of 2020, and that’s not good news.
16,218 Michigan residents have died over the last 13 months from the Coronavirus.
Just because you're "over it" doesn't mean that Coronavirus will magically disappear.
We're all tired - we all want this to be over with.
But now is not the time for recklessness.
Be safe, be smart, mask up, keep your distance, and get the vaccine as soon as you can.
On the bright side, 31% of Michigan residents have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and 19% are fully vaccinated.
I was on Daily Detroit with Jer Staes talking about Coronavirus and why cases are skyrocketing here in Metro Detroit.
Listen here: http://www.dailydetroit.com/2021/03/30/the-house-is-on-fire-with-coronavirus-in-metro-detroit/
Or listen here:
Thanks for reading and have a great week. - Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC
Delivering Excellent Customer Service in Primary Care
Delivering Excellent Customer Service in Primary Care
Recently, we were featured on Hunter Schultz’s podcast, Winning Healthcare Food Fights and we were able to talk about direct primary care and how we’re actively lowering the cost of healthcare while improving the customer experience in health care. You can listen to the podcast on a variety of platforms, from YouTube, to Apple Podcasts, to Anchor, and others. Here’s what Hunter Schultz had to say about the show:
American healthcare isn't known for great customer service. More like inconvenience. Dr. Paul Thomas thought differently and started Plum Health DPC in Detroit, MI. He learned a secret from other physicians. Changing the business model so his practice could focus on customer service and care. Along the way, he wrote one book and now helps other physicians looking for a better way to provide great patient care.
Dr. Thomas went the never crowded extra mile too. He opened Plum Health DPC in the Corktown area of Detroit, instead of Grosse Pointe. Every day, he and his team provide proof old-fashioned American ingenuity is alive and well. They are putting the Wow back into care by giving great customer service.
Visit Plum Health DPC, here.
His book, Direct Primary Care: The Cure for Our Broken Healthcare System, is available here.
For more resources and other information, please visit our website.
Paul Thomas, MD at the Plum Health DPC office in Corktown Detroit. The office is located at 1620 Michigan Ave, Suite 125, Detroit, MI 48216.
Many thanks to Hunter for putting together this interview, even more thanks to him for being an Alpha Reader for our first book, Direct Primary Care: The Cure for Our Broken Healthcare System. Here’s some of the topics we covered during the interview:
Exciting or positive things in the US Healthcare System, like the growing direct primary care movement and some free market elements in our current system that can help protect patients from overcharges in the current marketplace.
The types of tests or new tools for assessing health and wellness - things like 23andMe, Aperiomics, OneOme, Butterfly Ultrasound probe, texting, emails and more consistent communication with patients.
Integrating patients’ health goals into their care plan
Dr. Paul Thomas’ path to becoming a doctor - volunteering at Cass Clinic and working with compassionate doctors and medical students at Wayne State taking care of uninsured and underinsured patients in Detroit’s Cass Corridor
The simplicity of the Direct Primary Care model and aligning the incentives - when patients pay the monthly membership fee for a DPC practice, they are incentivized to use the system and to use the DPC service. Likewise, doctors are incentivized to take care of patients promptly and ensure optimal health and wellness. Doctors in the DPC model are also incentivized to not over-test and over-treat their patients. Rather, we focus on counseling our patients through their healthy behaviors to optimize wellness.
Price points at our model, seen here. Our price points are less than a cell phone bill for an individual and less than a cable bill for a family. We are cognizant of the median income in Detroit, our community, and that is $26,000 annually. We intentionally made our service affordable for anyone with an income in our community, and we deliver excellent primary care services to the folks that enroll in our clinic.
We discuss our recent Ribbon Cutting ceremony with Mayor Duggan and our recent move to 1620 Michigan Ave, Suite 125, Detroit MI 48216, which is 1.1 miles from our old office. We have a more conveniently location in Corktown, Detroit.
We recently hired a medical assistant, Chris, and we recently brought on a new doctor, Dr. Raquel Orlich who is quickly filling her practice with new patients. We typically have 25 to 30 new patients enroll in our practice each month.
We discuss having enough time to work with our patients. We typically have 30 minutes to 1 hour to spend with each of our patients. In the typical system, your doctor has 2,400 patients and they only get 10 to 15 minutes to take care of each patient. Having fewer patients allows us to have more time with our patients and to build trusting relationships with our patients.
We discuss the importance of having continuity of care, or a long-term relationship, with a primary care doctor. In our practice, we really focus on building the doctor-patient relationship and continuity of care.
Demonstrating how valuable it is to have a primary care doctor that knows you well.
Delivering an excellent customer experience in primary care at our Plum Health DPC office. This is achieved by meeting people at the door, having enough time for the appointment, addressing their concerns fully, giving the medications from our office and not sending them to a pharmacy, having the ability to draw blood in our office, and the ability to text and email our patients. Because we’re able to do these things well, our patients often have a “wow” experience. This becomes evident over time as more and more folks review our practice and our service (see Google reviews below).
Here’s more information about Winning Healthcare Food Fights in general:
Winning Healthcare Food Fights is a weekly online radio show covering important healthcare issues. Hear from physicians about getting better care, experts explaining how we arrived at our current mess, and how we clean it up!
Healthcare's solutions cannot possibly be described in 2 minute soundbites. It takes some time to sort through the mess to discover the attributes of great care and how we move forward.
The rewards are more confidence about the direction we must head, and what to do about it. Less fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Thanks so much for reading and watching, and have a wonderful day - Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC
As of February 2020, Plum Health DPC has 63 five star reviews on Google. Our hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm
Plum Health Featured on Small Talk with Mark S. Lee
Today we were featured on Small Talk with Mark S. Lee. This is our third time appearing on this program and it’s always a pleasure to be interviewed by Mark S. Lee.
Our segment starts at 45:13:
46:30 - we introduce Dr. Raquel Orlich, an Osteopathic physician who joined our practice on July 1st, 2019
46:40 - an update: Direct Primary Care is a membership model for health care that has grown tremendously because of the ever-rising costs of health insurance. There are now roughly 1,200 Direct Primary Care practices across the country. Our practice in Detroit, Plum Health DPC, now has over 500 members and we continue to deliver affordable, accessible healthcare in Detroit and beyond. People choose Plum Health because they can have a personal relationship with their doctor. People choose Plum Health because they have affordable costs for their meds, labs, and imaging services.
48:00 - Dr. Raquel Orlich talks about her education at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She also talks about how she found out about Plum Health DPC and how Dr. Paul and Dr. Raquel had a lot of alignment in their goals for medical care and community-based practice.
49:55 - Dr. Raquel Orlich talks about her scope of practice - taking care of people of all ages and stages. Dr. Raquel has special interests in Women’s Health, Preventive Medicine, and Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy.
50:42 - Mark S. Lee talks about our book Direct Primary Care: The Cure for Our Broken Healthcare System and how we thanked him in our Acknowledgments section for his coverage of Plum Health early on, before other journalists began taking notice.
50:55 - On the growth of Plum Health DPC, we have surpassed 500 members! This constitutes a full panel for Dr. Paul Thomas, and therefore we needed to bring on a second doctor, Dr. Raquel Orlich. At this point, any new patients will be patients of Dr. Raquel Orlich. We want to make it clear that there will always be room for new patients at Plum Health DPC and we will work tirelessly to accommodate anyone who needs or wants our care.
51:46 - Plum Health DPC will be moving into The Corner - Detroit development. This is at the Legendary Corner of Michigan and Trumbull in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. This is an amazing place because of all the Major League Baseball history at this site - players like Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth graced this diamond and this is the site of the 1984 Detroit Tigers’ World Series Championship. We will be moving into our new space at The Corner in September 2019 if everything goes according to plan and according to the proposed construction schedule.
53:12 - Dr. Raquel Orlich completed her residency at Ascension Macomb Hospital and she is now practicing in Detroit at Plum Health DPC. Mark S. Lee asks for her thoughts on the move. She wanted to have an opportunity to give back, especially with her background in volunteering. She wanted to make sure that she would have enough to spend with her patients and the capacity to provide low-cost services for patients who need it.
55:20 - Our practice, Plum Health DPC, continues to serve folks who have been left out by the traditional fee-for-service system. Dr. Paul Thomas discusses how we often have new patients sign up for the practice who haven’t been to the doctor for 5 - 10 years because they’ve been uninsured or underinsured and concerned about the cost of their potential medical care.
Thanks so much for listening, and have a wonderful day. If you’d like to have this type of health care for you, your family, or your small business, please reach out at 313.444.5630 or enroll online, here.
Again, a big thank you to Mark S. Lee for having us on his program, Small Talk with Mark S. Lee. Until next time!
-Paul Thomas, MD and Raquel Orlich, DO
Dr. Paul Thomas Featured on the Primary Care Cures Podcast
This week, Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health DPC was featured on the Primary Care Cures podcast, hosted by Ron Barshop. The podcast focuses on the people who are making a difference in Primary Care - those who are fighting against burnout, physician shortages, bad models, and forced buyouts.
Dr. Paul Thomas was featured on Episode 25 of the Primary Care Cures podcast with Ron Barshop
This episode had a fairly wide ranging discussion on Direct Primary Care, here are the show notes:
How I found out about the Direct Primary Care model at 2:50
Direct Primary Care Doctors and Burnout and Burnout in the Fee-For-Service system at 3:30
The different Direct Primary Care Conferences, including the AAFP DPC Summit and Nuts and Bolts in Florida at 5:00
The difference between Direct Primary Care and the Fee-For Service Model at 5:45
If all Primary Care Doctors went into Direct Primary Care, would there be a primary care shortage or would the primary care shortage worsen? at 6:10
Can we make Primary Care Medicine more appealing for medical students and residents? at 8:40
The percentage of medical students choosing Primary Care residencies and the Match at 9:40
The Income of a Direct Primary Care doctor at 10:15
Employees in the Direct Primary Care model - are they more satisfied because they have a lower volume? at 11:50
Starting a Direct Primary Care practice straight out of residency - is this unusual? at 12:50
Telehealth and digital communication and how that interfaces with the Direct Primary Care model, as well as texting your doctor at 14:34
Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health Featured on Sound Financial Bites
This week, we were featured on Sound Financial Bites. The topic was wide ranging, and it was great to be featured on this podcast. The producers of Sound Financial Bites, Paul Adams and Cory Shepherd, wrote a fantastic summary of our conversation, here:
EPISODE SUMMARY
This episode of the Sound Financial Bites Podcast tackles a topic that is central to our financial and physical wellbeing: healthcare. Paul Adams and Cory Shepherd welcome primary care physician Dr. Paul Thomas to discuss his practice, Plum Health, and the innovative strides he is making in the healthcare industry. Dr. Paul’s mission is to make healthcare accessible to those who cannot afford it and those who are fed up with the time, energy and money spent on traditional methods.
WHAT WAS COVERED
01:24 – Introducing today’s guest, Dr. Paul Thomas
02:38 – Dr. Paul defines the term direct primary care
03:18 – Concierge medicine
04:59 – How Dr. Paul’s business model makes money
06:39 – The huge markup on healthcare services
09:49 – The amount of patients a typical primary care physician has
11:26 – The pricing model that Dr. Paul utilizes
13:32 – Dr. Paul talks about the incredible growth of his practice, Plum Health
15:53 – Dr. Paul’s vision for the next five years of his practice
19:25 – Cosmetic surgery and Lasik
20:43 – Paul interrupts the podcast to provide the audience with a special offer
21:52 – The distinction between health insurance and healthcare
22:42 – Making healthcare accessible to those who cannot afford it
24:49 – The high-income earning patients that Dr. Paul also serves
26:28 – How Dr. Paul’s practice remains profitable
29:45 – The value of primary care
34:04 – The convenience factor
34:36 – Paul invites the audience to submit questions for Dr. Paul that he will answer in the next episode he joins
35:58 – Cory thanks Dr. Paul for joining Sound Financial Bites
TWEETABLES
“If you make greater than sixteen thousand dollars, you are disqualified from Medicaid services.”
LINKS
Sound Financial Group on Facebook - @SoundFinancialGroup
Sound Financial Group on LinkedIn
Dr. Paul Thomas Book - Direct Primary Care: The Cure for Our Broken Healthcare System
Thinking about Direct Primary Care, if you’re able to integrate our service with the right insurance product, there could be tremendous savings for you, your family, or your business. In short, part of my job is to protect you from insurance companies, big lab companies, and hospital systems that will overcharge you for your routine primary care services.
Thanks for reading and listening, and have a great day,
-Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC
Here’s the promo image from Sound Financial Bites for the podcast on Healthcare vs Health Insurance featuring Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health DPC.
Plum Health featured on the Beyond Medicine Podcast
This week, I was able to speak with Dr. Rami Wehbi about Direct Primary Care on his podcast, the Beyond Medicine Podcast.
Dr. Wehbi brings a unique perspective to the conversation as he is a Family Medicine Resident, considering his options as he creates a career for himself in Medicine.
This a crucial time in the life of a young professional, especially the life of a family physician. For a family doc like Dr. Wehbi, he could pursue an additional year of training in something like Sports Medicine, he could become a teaching physician, he could sign a contract with a large hospital system to see patients at a high rate, he could start a Direct Primary Care practice, or he could take on other options.
For me, Dr. Wehbi is the future - his choice, and the choices of his colleagues like him, will shape the future of family medicine and the future of how our patients afford and access health care in their communities.
I am so grateful to Dr. Rami Wehbi for having this conversation with me and I know that he will be successful in whatever path he chooses. People like Dr. Wehbi thinking critically about health care, and how we deliver that care, will advance the discussion and bring us closer to a better system.
In this part of the show, we discuss why health insurance really hurts low income people. Health insurance sets the price point too high for accessing routine, every day care. Often times, uninsured folks who are unable to afford the high cost of private insurance often go without basic health care services. For these patients, they cannot participate in the system because they don't have enough money to buy into the system. Further, if they do buy private insurance, they might be afraid to use health care services in the fee-for-service system because of the unknown/unclear pricing in that system.
In this video, we discuss the difference between health care and health insurance. In our health care model, we focus on developing relationships with our patients so that we can get to the root of the problem, rather than just treating the symptoms. We have this ability because we have enough time with our patients.
Here's the full list of what we discuss in the Beyond Medicine Podcast episode:
- Background of Dr. Paul and why he decided to start a Direct Primary Care practice in Detroit, Michigan.
- Why Insurance is a failing system in the medical world.
- How Insurance is inflating the cost of medicine.
- Why doctors have been unable to maintain a healthy doctor patient relationship.
- The difference between Direct Primary Care and Concierge Medicine.
- What is included in a Direct Primary Care practice.
- How does Direct Primary Care work and how does it benefit patients.
- How to find a doctor that practice in a Direct Primary Care model.
- How DPC can work with your insurance plan. HMO vs PPO vs Medicaid
- How Direct Primary Care can save you money every month.
- Doing the math of savings and how you can change your insurance plan and join a direct primary care.
- Wholesaling medications for patients in Detroit and Southeast Michigan and how Dr. Paul is able to save patients the cost of membership with the savings on medications alone.
- How DPC can work in non- affluent neighborhoods and how to start one.
- Patient pool in DPC vs a insurance based model.
- How to make a DPC practice sustainable and profitable. My experience with being demoralized seeing the current state of healthcare.
- How do you order imaging, get consults from specialists.
- How does pricing work?
You can listen to or download the podcast, here. You can find out more about Dr. Wehbi, here.
Thanks for reading and watching, and have a wonderful day.
- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC
Below are some extra videos produced by Dr. Rami Wehbi, enjoy!
In the above video, we discuss our values at Plum Health DPC, and we value the doctor-patient relationship. We value getting to know our patients, understanding who they are, and where they want to go in their health care journey. We also really value price transparency. We want all of our patients to know what the prices for health care are, so that they can make informed choices about consuming health care services.
Below, Dr. Rami Wehbi and I discuss why it's important to have longer, often 1 hour appointments with our patients. This really allows us to focus on the relationship, and developing strong relationships with our patients.
Plum Health Interviewed by Daily Detroit
This week, we were interviewed by Daily Detroit about our Demo Day Win! Here's the "News Byte"
In the above interview, Jeremiah mentions a previous interview, and that interview can be heard here:
If you're unfamiliar with our service, my name is Dr. Paul Thomas and I'm a Family Medicine Doctor in Detroit. Our office is in Southwest Detroit and we take care of people of all ages and stages - our youngest patient is 6 months old and our oldest is now 92 years young.
We offer the same services as any other primary care office, but we use a membership model - that means that our members pay $10/month for children and starting at $49/month for adults to use our service. This allows us to have more one-on-one time with our patients and deliver a higher level of service in our office.
One way that we go above and beyond is that every patient has my cell phone number - meaning that they can call or text me anytime they need me. We guarantee same-day or next-day appointments, and the majority of our in-office procedures are free of charge, like abscess drainage, toenail removal, ear lavage, etc...
If you're ready to start your journey to better health with Plum Health, then head over to our enrollment link, here.
Thanks for reading and listening!
- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC
