At Fishtown Medicine, we practice something called Direct Primary Care — or DPC for short. Here’s what that actually means, and why it matters for your health.
🧭 Direct Primary Care is built around you, not billing codes.
In conventional care, doctors often manage 2,000–3,000 patients and only get paid if you come in, get coded, and bill through insurance. That means 7-minute visits, waitlists, and decisions shaped more by red tape than your actual needs.
In DPC, your doctor is paid directly by you — through a simple monthly membership. No billing codes. No middle layers. Just real-time care and deep partnership.
🕰 What makes it different?
⏱ More time with your doctor
Not 7 minutes. Our visits last as long as needed — 30, 60, sometimes 90+ minutes — so we can actually understand what’s going on.
📲 Direct access
You can text or call directly — no long portal logins, no receptionists screening your concerns, no waiting days for a reply.
🔄 Relationship continuity
You always see the same doctor (Dr. Ash), so your story doesn’t get lost. As you share more, we build real understanding — and faster, smarter care.
🧠 Personalized prevention
We don’t wait for you to get sick. We get ahead of risks, review labs in depth, and create plans that fit your body, goals, and lifestyle.
⚖️ What about insurance?
We don’t bill insurance for your visits — and that’s on purpose. It lets us focus fully on your health, not what gets approved by a code.
But your insurance still works for:
Labs
Imaging
Prescriptions
Referrals and specialists
We guide you to in-network options and help you get the most out of your benefits.
🧑⚕️ Why we do it this way
We started Fishtown Medicine to offer what most of us — even doctors — wish we had:
A physician who knows us, listens deeply, and helps us stay healthy instead of reacting too late.
That’s Direct Primary Care.
That’s Fishtown Medicine.