What Is Direct Primary Care and What Does a Membership Cover?

Direct primary care, usually shortened to DPC, is a way of paying for your family doctor that skips the insurance company. Instead of the practice billing an insurer for every visit and you paying a copay, you pay the practice a flat monthly membership, and that membership covers your primary care. Most practices charge somewhere between $50 and $150 a month for an adult and less for a child.

What the membership buys

The model works because the doctor's income no longer depends on how many visits they can squeeze into a day. A typical insurance-based family physician carries 2,000 or more patients. A DPC physician carries 400 to 700. That smaller panel is what pays for the things members notice:

• Unlimited visits with no copay, and appointments of 30 to 60 minutes rather than seven.
• Same-day or next-day access for sick visits, because the schedule is not full.
• Direct contact with your doctor by text, phone or video, often including after hours.
• Basic in-office work such as rapid strep and flu tests, EKGs, urinalysis, stitches, joint injections and skin procedures, usually included.
• Wholesale prices on labs, imaging and generic medications the practice orders or dispenses, because the practice passes through its negotiated cash rates.

What it does not buy

A membership is not health insurance and cannot replace it. It does not pay for hospital stays, surgery, specialists, emergency rooms, cancer treatment, most brand-name prescriptions or the labs a practice sends out. Florida's direct health care agreement statute, section 624.27, requires every agreement to state in writing that it is not insurance and that you should keep other coverage for those services. Every practice in this directory says the same thing on its own website, and then most of them stop there. That is the gap this directory exists to close: the membership covers the everyday half of your care, and a coverage partner helps you choose the plan that covers the other half.

What it costs in 2026

The DPC Alliance's 2026 survey of 465 practices puts the national average at about $98 a month per member, with practices in the South averaging $98, urban practices $110 and rural practices $82. Three quarters of practices price by age, so a 30-year-old and a 65-year-old at the same practice often pay different amounts. Children on a parent's membership range from $10 to $99 a month locally. Some practices charge a one-time enrollment fee between $75 and $200, and a few require a contract for add-on services such as aesthetic treatments.

Since January 1, 2026, a membership of $150 a month or less for an individual, or $300 for a family, is compatible with a health savings account under federal law. Every listing on this site carries a badge showing whether the practice's adult fee stays inside that cap.

Who it suits

DPC tends to work best for people who see a doctor more than once or twice a year, who want a real relationship with one physician, who take common generic medications, or who are on a high-deductible plan and paying full price for visits anyway. It suits self-employed people and small employers who want to give staff a doctor without a group plan. It suits some Medicare beneficiaries, though not all, which is why each listing here states the practice's Medicare policy.

How to compare practices

Look at four things: the adult monthly fee and what tier it is, whether children and spouses have their own rate, what is bundled (weight-loss medicine, hormone care, mental health, house calls) versus billed separately, and whether the practice publishes any of this at all. Three of the eighteen practices in Northeast Florida publish no membership price. Then look at the coverage question every practice leaves open, and use the coverage partner on each county page to close it.