At NAB Life Health, Jesus is the backbone. Physician Assistant Hector Bird says the faith aspect is part of what made him want to work at the doctor's office.
"You need to have that something grounding you as to why you're practicing and how you practice, because otherwise, you'll lose your soul into it, into medicine, because it takes a lot," Bird said.
Bird says the pandemic showed how exhausting medical care can be.
"It was just mentally taxing, working in the hospital for sure, because it was it was really hard," Bird said. "It was hard to see people that sick and you really didn't have much to offer them."
Bird says that fatigue is a big part of why he chose to join the private practice at NAB Life Health.
"When you're in a practice like this where you really do feel like a partner in taking care of patients and you're not just somebody else that's moving the meat because you just need some other body to do that, it's worth a lot," Bird said.
NAB Life Health is an internal medicine practice that treats adults with a strong focus on preventive medicine and management of chronic diseases. Dr. Michael Weisbruch says they work with Medicare, but otherwise, they don't take health insurance. Instead, they work on a cash-pay system.
"Right now, our monthly rate for that membership is $75 per month," Dr. Weisbruch said.
He says this system has allowed them to think outside the box of limitations health insurance companies often have, saving them and the patients money. More important than money is the value of care. Each patient gets about an hour per visit, with clinicians following up through phone calls to make sure the patient stays on top of their care. Ronnie Rubin says he's never been so pleased with his health care.
"Compared to the care that we previously had, you know, being in the military and traveling around and going to these different places after I retired, you know, the care didn't seem concerned about my health," Rubin said. "It just seemed that they were concerned more about what I could file for, what kind of a claim I could get. And I'm, you know, trying to be, you know, live longer, live healthier. You know, I got grandkids."
Right now, Dr. Weisbruch says there are thousands of direct primary care models throughout the country, and with their success, he expects that number to grow.
"We're structured in a way right now where we could actually bring in additional physicians, that we could own their own practice, practice autonomously and independently, but also have a very, very good business foundation that they can model and operate from and and, you know, be very flexible within the ways that they would want to provide," Dr. Weisbruch said.