Doctor opening subscription-based direct primary care practice on Main Street

After spending the last three years as a primary care physician at St. Francis in Wilmington, Aaron Weaver grew tired of juggling too many patients, tired of rushing patients out the door to get to the next appointment, and tired of dealing with insurance companies.

"I just realized there are so many things that were wrong. So many barriers, so many layers were put between the patient and the doctor," Weaver said. "So one day, I just decided, hey, I have to do something different."

Weaver is opening First State Direct Primary Care in an office he is leasing in the Newark Urgent Care building on Main Street. He's already started seeing a few patients, but the practice will officially open Sept. 5.

Direct primary care is a growing trend in medicine that eschews the insurance company system and instead charges patients a monthly subscription fee for medical care.

According to the advocacy group Direct Primary Care Coalition, there are approximately 1,600 direct primary care physicians serving some 300,000 patients in the United States.

At Weaver's practice, adults ages 18 to 44 pay $55 a month, and the price ranges up to $75 per month as patients age. Kids are $25 per month.

"This isn't some posh concierge practice for the elite," Weaver said. "This is a practice that for less than a phone bill, you can receive high quality primary care."

The fee covers office visits – including phone calls, texts, video chats and even home visits – with no copay or additional fees. It also covers basic procedures like stitches, EKGs, etc.

The office gets wholesale prices for bloodwork, X-rays and many prescription drugs and passes those savings on to patients.

He gave the example of one patient who needed routine bloodwork, something she paid more than $400 for previously. Weaver was able to order the testing for $22.

"We don't make any money off these ancillary services," he said.

Another patient, he said, texted him a photo of her skin rash and he diagnosed it, ordered her an antibiotic ointment for $3.50 and dropped it off at her house the next day.

Weaver imagines most of his patients will be people without health insurance or who have an insurance policy with a high deductible.

"I think our target is really the 95 percent of people that don't have the platinum plans and have to pay a lot of money out of pocket already for their health care," he said.

While his office doesn't take insurance, many patients will still use insurance for visits to specialists and for expensive, brand-name drugs.

"What I like to tell people is you save insurance for the big stuff. I'm not anti-insurance. I'm anti using insurance to pay for every single health care cost," he said. "When you cut out all the red tape, primary health care services are actually very affordable."

Weaver hopes to get his practice to approximately 700 patients and then he will consider bringing in a second doctor. He eventually hopes to grow enough to get his own facility and then expand First State Direct Primary Care to other areas of the state.

Newark was an attractive place to start, said Weaver, who is from Williamsport, Pa., and now lives in Wilmington.

"It has the University of Delaware, it's got a great community with a lot of families," he said. "Honestly, the population of Newark very much reminds me of kind of the average American."

Weaver said the direct primary care model allows him to spend 30 minutes to an hour with a patient, rather than the hurried appointments he was used to at his old job.

"This is what I envisioned when I said, hey, I want to be a doctor – being part of a community and being a human just taking care of another human and meeting people where they're at," Weaver said.