How Direct Primary Care practices like Simplified Health DPC and Mid Cities DPC are Partnering with Hint Connect to Grow their Panels with Employers

Direct Primary Care practices have overcome major hurdles to put patients back at the center of healthcare, but wearing both the hat of a physician and business owner can reveal some daunting roadblocks.

While prioritizing patient-centered care and eliminating the complexities of insurance billing continue to gain traction, educating potential patients and building employer relationships is challenging and time-consuming. Hint Connect is designed to help simplify this process by working in partnership with benefits innovators and employers to enable streamlined access to a nationwide network of independent DPC clinics. This case study explores how two clinics are working with Hint Connect to simplify working with employers and passively growth their panels.

In 2023, Dr. Blake Hansen, Founder of Simplified Health DPC, joined Hint Connect hoping to expand his Direct Primary Care practice in northwest Arkansas, an area that has become quite a business hub for the region, with a population of over 500,000. Despite the demand for a direct care model of medicine, Dr. Hansen’s practice was struggling when it came to expanding to local employers. He recalls the time and energy spent on reaching out to employers individually – rather than treating patients, he was knocking on doors of local businesses, and, although conversations were happening and groups were signing up, the slow pace was tough to manage. 

"It is a little bit overwhelming and I’ve [reached out] individually, met with employers - it moves slow, they have a lot of questions about the process,” explains Dr. Hansen.

Dr. Hansen was delightfully surprised when his first employee lives started to roll in from Hint Connect after he was informed about a distributed employer that needed some coverage in his area.  

In addition to not needing to go out to educate and sell potential employers about Direct Primary Care and its benefits, the Hint Connect members were already familiar with and well-educated on their new DPC benefit and what would be available to them. “They seem to be very proactive about their care, more so than my other employer groups… these HR departments do a good job of educating on the benefits of DPC. I would say that has been one of the biggest differences,” Dr. Hansen goes on to share.

“My experience has been seamless, and honestly, very beneficial to my growth. I'm not having to go out to market to these entities and I'm getting new patients that are signing up,” says Dr. Hansen.

Dr. Kara Farley of Mid Cities Direct Primary Care in Grapevine, Texas joined Hint Connect in Summer 2023. She had already been working with employers and was having success, as nearly one-quarter of her panel was attributed to employer sponsors. After a couple of conversations with the Hint team about the Hint Connect process and onboarding, and potential opportunities given her location, she joined the network.

“Most of our employer groups are spread out with employees who live throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth bubble – we’re right in the middle, so we can service a broad territory, which made Hint Connect attractive,” explains Dr. Farley.