Dr. Rami Turner uses her own medical journey experiences to help guide her practice, Devoted Direct Primary Care Family Medicine, in Keller.
The overview
Direct primary care is a health care model where patients pay their primary care physician a flat, recurring monthly or annual membership fee directly, rather than billing insurance for every visit.
Turner said her path toward opening a practice that used direct primary care began when she was diagnosed with an autoimmune neuromuscular disease called Stiff Person Syndrome. According to Columbia University in New York, fewer than 5,000 people in the United States have this rare disease.
Turner said she had the condition when she was in school at Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and during her family medicine residency, but didn't realize it.
“I was seeing four or five patients an hour and it was wearing me out, but what I didn’t know I had this underlying condition,” she said. “It got bad enough to basically push me out of work.”
Turner said that led her to open her practice in April 2024.
Put in perspective
Between battling her own medical issues and working in corporate medicine, she noticed a trend of doctors rushing to get in and out and to see the next patient.
“The corporate world wants a 15 minute or less, basically seven minutes face-to-face time, [then] get your chart done before you leave to go home,” Turner said.
Turner said some insurance companies would decline lab work, or she would have to jump through a lot of hoops to justify why it was needed. After research, Turner found a direct primary care option that is not mandated by insurance costs and approvals.
She launched her own direct primary care business, starting with telehealth visits. Turner spends at least 30 minutes with a patient and try to find out issues they are experiencing.
“People can get time to actually express themselves and say what’s going on and you can get a full picture,” she said. “Because any doctor would have gotten a full picture of what was going on with me if they thought, 'Maybe I need to go a little further on this and not let it go.' Direct primary care gives more autonomy for the doctor to make decisions about the health of their patient, rather than the insurance company, which never sees the patient.”
The detailsTurner said that by seeing herself or her colleague, nurse practitioner Mary Jo Decker, patients can get discounts on labs.
She said most families spend thousands a month on insurance when they could pay a fraction of that with direct primary care. Turner runs a hybrid clinic that accepts insurance and offers direct primary care, but a patient has to decide which route to use, since both cannot be used.
She said the maximum price an individual pays to see her is $100 a month, while a family of four pays $200 a month. Turner said some of the confusion with direct primary care stems from the cash component, but noted that a regular doctor visit without insurance could cost up to $300, not inlcuding additional testing.
Devoted Direct Primary Care Family Medicine has seen a 2,400% increase in patients since starting in 2024, according to data Turner provided.
She said a big reason for the increase in direct primary care usage is insurance companies. Turner said that if people aren't meeting their deductible each year, they are paying out of pocket. That issue is coupled with the denial of care by insurance companies.
According to a 2024 study by the American Academy of Family Physicians, 97% of doctors said the main driver for opening a direct primary care office was the potential to provide better care.
An example she gave is how one of her patients needed multiple tests done and was told it would be $5,000 out of pocket; instead, through direct primary care, his cost was about $1,000 through her practice.
“I don't think [people] understand what they're saving in the long run; they're saving their health for one thing, but they're also saving their money,” Turner said. “I don't have to code anything, because nothing's being sent to an insurance company. I don't have to explain myself for my decisions to the insurance company.”
Turner uses various social media channels to post videos and answer health questions about direct primary care, as well as posting blogs on her business's website.
What else?
Direct Primary Care Frontier, which maps offices around the country, shows 23 in Tarrant County, but only three in the Keller, Fort Worth or Roanoke area.
DPC Health in Keller opened in 2018, according to its website. Turner's practice, along with Primary Care Simplified, both opened in 2024.
