Twenty-Eight New Patients From One Billboard
Twenty-eight new patients. One month. One Kansas City internist.
The Beacon just wrote her up. Myriam Ensling put her face on a billboard near Gregory and Troost. The line above the smile says it plain: No insurance? No problem. Last month she signed twenty-eight people who finally had somewhere to go.
I am not shocked. The system already collapsed for a lot of them. Premiums climbed. Deductibles turned into a second rent. Copays made a sore throat feel like a budget decision. They did not need another network brochure. They needed a doctor who answers the phone.
Down the street, a coffee shop on Troost covers direct primary care for its twenty-two employees. The owners could not swing full insurance. They could swing a flat monthly fee. A barista called it a luxury. That is what having a doctor used to be called before the claim form showed up.
The Direct Primary Care Alliance puts the Midwest average around eighty dollars a month. Unlimited visits. Text when something looks wrong. A panel of five or six hundred, not two thousand. Damon Heybrock said it the way I say it. Car insurance does not pay for your oil change. Keep a policy for the wreck. Primary care is the oil change.
I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. I am anti a product that makes you ration the visit that keeps you out of the wreck. We take care of patients for a flat monthly fee. No claim. No network. The number on the door is the number you pay.
Twenty-eight is not a marketing metric. It is how many people found the door in one month because someone posted a real price.