Letter from the editor
It’s Open
Enrollment Time
Maryal Concepcion, MD FAAFP, Host & Creator, My DPC Story
Every fall, coverage resets while life keeps moving. Formularies shuffle. Networks tighten. Employers re-bid benefits. And by January 1, your patients want one thing: confidence that nothing important fell through the cracks. This issue gives you everything you need to be that confidence.
“Open Enrollment is when calm, relationship-based primary care shines.”
Practical guide
How to Prepare Your DPC for January 1, 2026
A 30-minute team prep plan, copy-and-paste patient scripts, Medicare timeline, sticky-note exam room prompts, and the open enrollment survival kit your front desk needs. From the Annual Notice of Change window (Oct 15–Dec 7) to the MA do-over period (Jan 1–Mar 31), every key date, every key script.
“Bring your ANOC letter and your med list to your next visit, or snap photos and upload them to the portal. We’ll help you sanity-check your plan.”
30-second patient script
Policy
DPC at the Crossroads:
Why the Time to Act Is Now
Jay Keese, DPC Coalition
With the passage of HR 1, the “Big Beautiful Bill”, Congress has officially amended the IRS tax code to allow HSA dollars to be used for DPC services. Beginning tax year 2026, patients with high-deductible health plans can use pre-tax HSA dollars toward DPC memberships (fees under $150/month for individuals, $300 for families). A decade in the making. What physicians must do now.
Medicare
DPC and Medicare:
The Fork in the Road
Maryal Concepcion, MD
Opt in or opt out, and why “playing both sides” is a 2004 OIG fraud alert waiting to happen. The two paths, when each makes sense, the MA gray zone, and the five steps to opt out the right way. Whatever you choose, make it intentional, informed, and well-documented.
Physician Feature
Dr. Emily Holt:
Restoring the Soul of Medicine, One Patient at a Time
Poppy Direct Care, New Orleans, LA
From full-time EMT during Hurricane Katrina to FQHC physician to DPC founder. Holt’s Poppy Direct Care centers gender-affirming, shame-free, relationship-based care in New Orleans. How she navigates the “Big Beautiful Bill,” partners with Byja Clinic for nonprofit DPC, and builds a practice around humanity over bureaucracy.
“I became a doctor to care for people, not to feed algorithms.”
Open enrollment
Health Shares and the Self-Employed
Health sharing ministries aren’t insurance, and that’s exactly why they pair well with DPC for the right patients. What health shares cover, when they make sense (and when they don’t), the Sedera settlement, and how Zion HealthShare specifically integrates with DPC practices.
DPC covers routine and preventive care directly. A health share can step in for unexpected, high-cost events, surgery, hospitalization, or trauma. Together they bypass insurance bureaucracy while keeping a financial safety net.
Sponsored feature
Rise-Up Physician Summit
Dr. Holly Shen, OBGYN, FlexMedStaff × My DPC Story
FlexMedStaff, the first and only educational platform built by physicians, for physicians, partnered with My DPC Story for the inaugural Rise-Up Physician Summit. A virtual event for doctors breaking free from outdated models and exploring sustainable, independent career paths.
Essay
Humanity Meets Design:
A Dialogue on the Future of Direct-Pay Medicine
Kalli Ortega, Benefits Advisor, Meleos Group
The system isn’t broken, it’s operating exactly as designed. The issue isn’t mechanical failure; it’s diagnostic failure. Ortega argues that DPC must document its identity, define concierge navigation as a core metric, and design for the cultural and psychological trust boundaries of its patient population. Redesign isn’t rebellion, it’s recovery.
“If we are to reclaim the humanity of healthcare, we must do more than repair. We must redesign. Humanity isn’t an inefficiency; it’s the load-bearing wall of any system that hopes to endure.”
Patient resources
Advocating for Our Patients
Christy Snodgrass, RN, HealthcareReformed.org
An oncology nurse turned DPC patient and patient advocate. Snodgrass’s Patient Resources library curates Dollar For (hospital charity care), prescription savings, imaging discounts, and advocacy templates for DPC patients navigating the rest of the healthcare system. Her work on the HSA + DPC policy shift and what it means for patient access.
Christy Smith, RN joined Dr. Garrison Bliss, “Father of the DPC Movement,” and Dave Chase of Health Rosetta at RosettaFest 2025.
