Members of two committees of the Carter County Commission are hosting a workshop this week to look at a possible way to combat the rising costs of health care and are asking county employees and members of the public to attend.

In recent years, as with many other government agencies and employers across the country, Carter County has seen the costs of employee health insurance increase. Employers across the country are continually trying to provide quality health care to their employees while keeping costs manageable.

In looking at ways to manage the cost of health care without compromising quality, members of the Carter County Budget Committee and the Health and Welfare Committee requested a workshop on what a Direct Primary Care (DPC) program is and how it could benefit the county and its employees. That workshop will take place on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. in the courtroom at the Carter County Courthouse.

Union County, N.C., implemented a DPC program in recent years to try to keep costs low for the county and, subsequently, the taxpayers while also increasing access to primary care for the employees. Mark Watson, the Executive Director of Human Resources for Union County, N.C., will give a presentation at the workshop about his county’s experiences with a DPC program.

“Union County implemented the program in 2015 and saved the county, and taxpayers, $1.28 million in its first year of implementation,” said Commissioner Dr. Robert Acuff, who serves as a member of the Budget Committee as well as Chairman of the County Commission.

During recent meetings, members of the Budget Committee and Health and Welfare Committee each received a copy of a report completed by the John Locke Foundation on the DPC program in Union County. The John Locke Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) “think tank” research institute founded in 1990 which lists its mission as employing “research, journalism, and outreach programs to transform government through competition, innovation, personal freedom, and personal responsibility.”

The report from the JFL describes Direct Primary Care as “a simplified health care business model that removes insurance companies from basic primary care.” Patients participating in a DPC program pay a monthly, out-of-pocket fee and in return get unlimited access to a defined package of services and unrestricted access to their physician. In most cases, doctors in the DPC program are available around the clock either in person, by telephone or text message, and in some cases even through online video chat platforms such as Skype. Under the DPC there is no limit to the number of times a patient can have access to their physician or on how many services they can utilize from their service package.

According to the JFL report, DPC programs have been around for 20 years, but it has only been in recent years that the popularity of such programs has increased.

“As of 2014, over 4,400 doctors in the U.S. had transitioned to direct primary care delivery,” the JFL report states. “While this represents less than 2 percent of family doctors in the U.S., it is a significant increase from just 146 in 2005.”

One of the reasons the DPC model is experiencing growth, according to the JFL report, is that the delivery model for DPC removes insurance companies from the primary care equation. “By dealing directly with patients and filing no insurance billing whatsoever, DPC practices are able to eliminate 40 to 60 percent of their overhead expenses,” the JFL report said. “This also frees up far more time for doctors to spend with their patients.”

The JFL report also looks at the possibility of DPC programs working for other government agencies and employers. According to the report, Union County has around 1,000 employees. Across the state of North Carolina there are more than 60,000 county government employees, and the JFL report estimates that if other counties added a DPC program option for employees and saw similar results to Union County it could result in nearly $75 million in statewide savings in the first year alone.

“As health care costs continue to rise faster than the rate of general inflation, county government must necessarily consider new and innovative ideas,” the JFL report said. “The DPC model has the potential to go beyond reforming our local and national health care delivery system and effectively transforming it.”

To see the full report by the John Locke Foundation, visit www.johnlocke.org/research/direct-primary-care-for-local-goverments/.