Direct Primary Care (DPC) & Concierge Care
Direct primary care (DPC) is the name given in the ACA (Affordable Care Act) to a physician-led model of outpatient medical care for cash. DPC is based on the idea that better care can be delivered much more affordably by separating primary care from traditional insurance.
Dr. Julie is a pioneer of the direct primary care movement with sparkMD having been designated one of the first 150 DPC clinics in the US (Information here). She helped lead the charge for independent cash-based healthcare leading to the passage of Senate Bill 1062 (SB 1062) and paving the way for membership-based healthcare models in Idaho. For nearly a decade she led a small team that provided comprehensive outpatient medical and procedural care for less than $89/month for adults and less than $20/month for children all the while traveling around the country helping other physicians open and grow their own, similar, practices.
In early 2022, Dr. Julie reached out to Dr. Tara Erbele, a DPC pioneer in her own right, and asked her to join forces. Together they decided to pivot sparkMD from a ‘how low can we go’ design to a more sustainable (and, yes), more expensive yet still transparently priced, membership-driven, comprehensive-care model that provides home-grown compassionate medical care in a modern environment.
Dr. Julie, Dr. Tara and the sparkMD team are passionate about advocating for patients and streamlining medical care. Overtime this has become a daunting task. Dr. Julie and Dr. Tara believe that modern healthcare has operationalized so much of the patient-experience that the person in healthcare is lost. Dr. Tara and Dr. Julie are committed to the work they set out to do when they chose to become physicians. They are passionate about caring for patients as people, for helping people live their best lives and for doing right by others.