Business & Finances

Setting your DPC membership price involves a mix of market research and financial modeling, and getting it right matters because the fee needs to be high enough to sustain your practice at a reasonable panel size of 400 to 800 patients while also being low enough to remain accessible to your target patient population.

The national pricing data from 2025 gives you a sense of where things stand across the country. Adult individual memberships typically run between $50 and $150 per month with a median of about $85. Children under 18 are usually $25 to $50 per month with a median around $35. Families of four tend to pay $150 to $350 per month with a median of $225. Senior memberships for patients 65 and older generally cost $100 to $175 per month with a median of $125. And employer group rates typically fall between $50 and $125 per employee per month.

When thinking about where to set your price there are several factors worth considering. Your local cost of living and median household income play a big role since what works in San Francisco would be way too high for a rural community in the Midwest. You should look at what other DPC practices in your area are charging because that establishes a reference point. Your target panel size and revenue goal matter because a higher price means you can sustain the practice with fewer patients. The comprehensiveness of the services you include in the membership affects what you can reasonably charge. And your overhead structure matters because a solo practice working out of a modest office has very different cost requirements than a multi-provider group with a larger space.

The basic pricing formula works like this: take your target annual revenue, divide it by your target panel size, then divide that by 12 months, and that gives you your monthly price per member. So if you need $500,000 per year and you want a panel of 500 members, that works out to $83 per month.

Tiered pricing is becoming increasingly popular among DPC practices and it works well because it lets you offer different levels of service at different price points. A basic tier at around $60 per month might include office visits, phone and text access, and basic labs. A standard tier at around $85 per month would include everything in basic plus expanded labs, simple procedures, and wholesale medications. And a premium tier at around $125 per month might add home visits, after-hours access, and an annual executive physical.

Many practices also offer a 10 to 15 percent discount for patients who prepay annually and family bundle discounts for households, and some offer a special "founding member" rate as a launch incentive where early enrollees get a locked-in lower price that rewards them for taking a chance on you before you were established.

DPC startup costs come in significantly lower than traditional practices primarily because you are eliminating the need for billing staff, practice management software, clearinghouse subscriptions, and the entire coding and compliance infrastructure that fee-for-service practices depend on. Many DPC physicians get started in modest spaces of around 800 to 1,200 square feet with minimal equipment.

A typical DPC startup budget breaks down something like this. Your lease and buildout costs including first and last month's rent plus deposit and basic renovation will usually run between $15,000 and $40,000. Medical equipment like exam tables, diagnostic equipment, and point-of-care lab supplies typically costs $8,000 to $20,000. Your EHR and technology setup including a DPC-specific EHR, website, and phones will be around $2,000 to $5,000. Legal and accounting fees for entity formation, your DPC membership agreement, and CPA setup run about $3,000 to $8,000. Insurance costs including malpractice, general liability, and cyber insurance will be $5,000 to $12,000. Marketing and branding including your website, launch campaign, and signage will cost roughly $3,000 to $10,000. Working capital to cover 6 to 12 months of personal living expenses during the ramp-up period should be $20,000 to $60,000. And miscellaneous expenses for things like furniture, supplies, and an initial drug inventory will add another $5,000 to $10,000. All told the total range for a typical solo DPC launch is $60,000 to $165,000.

There are several funding sources that DPC physicians commonly use. Personal savings is the most common approach. SBA 7(a) loans are another good option because physician practices have very high approval rates. There are also physician-specific lenders like Live Oak Bank, Provide, and BankMD that understand the DPC model. Some physicians use a home equity line of credit. And if you are leaving a health system, you may be able to negotiate an employer signing bonus as part of your departure.

For physicians who want to keep their startup costs as low as absolutely possible, there is an ultra-lean DPC launch path that some have used to get started for under $30,000 by subletting exam rooms from other practices, using a house-call or mobile model, or starting as a telehealth-first practice and adding a physical location once they have built up a base of 100 or more members.

The DPC ramp-up follows a remarkably consistent pattern across practices regardless of market. In months 1 through 3 you will typically sign up 20 to 60 members, mostly from your personal network, friends and family, word-of-mouth, and any existing patients who follow you from your previous practice. In months 4 through 6 you usually reach 60 to 120 members as your marketing starts to gain traction and community awareness of your practice builds. In months 7 through 12 you can expect to reach 120 to 250 members as patient referrals start to accelerate and your reputation in the community becomes established. And in months 13 through 24 you are typically approaching your target panel of 250 to 500 or more members.

To give you a concrete sense of what the cash flow looks like for a solo DPC practice charging $85 per month with a moderate growth rate, in month 1 your revenue might be around $4,250 against expenses of about $8,000 which puts you at a net loss of $3,750. By month 3 your revenue grows to about $10,625 while expenses stay around $8,000 so you are net positive at about $2,625. By month 6 revenue has grown to roughly $21,250 against expenses of $9,000 for a net of about $12,250. By month 12 revenue hits about $42,500 with expenses of $10,000 giving you net income of around $32,500 per month. And by month 18 revenue reaches approximately $53,125 against $11,000 in expenses for a net of about $42,125 per month.

The breakeven point where your monthly revenue covers your monthly expenses typically happens somewhere between months 3 and 6 for lean DPC practices, and reaching your full panel and target income usually takes 18 to 30 months.

There are a few critical cash flow planning principles to keep in mind. You should have 6 to 12 months of personal living expenses saved before you launch so you are not under financial pressure during the slow early months. Keep your overhead as low as you possibly can during the ramp-up period by avoiding an expensive office lease and minimizing staff until you need them. Consider starting your DPC practice as a side venture while you are still employed, seeing patients on weekends or evenings, to build an initial panel before you make the full leap. And keep in mind that employer contracts can dramatically accelerate your ramp-up because a single 50-employee employer contract provides the equivalent of 4 to 6 months worth of individual patient enrollment growth.

Beyond your core membership revenue there are several additional income streams that DPC practices commonly take advantage of.

Dispensed medications are one of the most popular ancillary revenue sources, and the way it works is that you purchase generic medications at wholesale prices through DPC-friendly pharmacies like Androgen, PricePharma, or Henry Schein and then dispense them directly to your patients at a modest markup. To give you a sense of the margins involved, many DPC practices buy something like metformin for about $0.03 per tablet and sell it for around $0.10, and even at that price the patient is saving 80 percent or more compared to what they would pay at a retail pharmacy. An active practice can generate $10,000 to $40,000 per year from medication dispensing.

Wholesale lab work is another significant revenue opportunity. By contracting directly with reference labs like Quest or Sonora Quest at DPC-level pricing, you can offer labs to your patients at prices that are dramatically lower than what insurance would bill while still making a reasonable margin. A comprehensive metabolic panel might cost you $3 to $4 and you charge the patient $10 to $15, which is a great deal for them and a meaningful revenue source for you that can add up to $15,000 to $50,000 per year.

Simple procedures like joint injections, skin biopsies, and IUD insertions can either be bundled into the membership or offered as add-on services at transparent cash prices, and most DPC practices include the basic procedures in the membership while charging separately for more complex ones.

Employer contracts are the single highest-leverage revenue source available to DPC practices because a single contract with a 100-employee company at $75 per employee per month adds $90,000 per year to your revenue in one deal.

Wellness programs including annual physicals, pre-employment screenings, DOT physicals for trucking companies, and sports physicals for local schools can all be offered at competitive cash rates and help get your name out in the community.

And telehealth services like providing after-hours telemedicine coverage for other practices or offering telemedicine services to out-of-state patients can be another revenue stream, although you should check the licensing requirements for practicing across state lines before going this route.

Tax optimization matters enormously for DPC physicians because as a self-employed practitioner you are paying both sides of the FICA tax, which adds up to 15.3 percent on the first $168,600 of earned income as of 2025, and that is a significant amount of money that you can partially recapture with the right entity structure and tax strategy.

The S-Corp election is one of the most important tax moves you can make, and the way it works is that once your practice is netting more than about $60,000 to $80,000 per year, you elect S-Corp status for your PLLC and then pay yourself a "reasonable salary" that is typically in the range of $120,000 to $180,000 for a primary care physician, and then take the remaining profits as distributions that are not subject to FICA taxes. For most DPC physicians at full panel this saves somewhere between $15,000 and $25,000 per year.

The Solo 401(k) is another powerful tool because as an S-Corp owner-employee you can contribute up to $23,500 per year as employee deferrals plus up to 25 percent of your W-2 salary as employer contributions, which means the total possible contribution can reach $69,000 per year based on 2025 limits, and if you are over 50 there is an additional $7,500 catch-up contribution available. This shelters a very significant amount of income from current taxation.

There are also several key deductions that DPC practices commonly take advantage of, including the home office deduction if you do administrative work from home, vehicle mileage for house calls and hospital visits and conference travel, continuing medical education and conference expenses for events like the DPC Summit and Hint Summit, health insurance premiums which are 100 percent deductible for self-employed individuals, equipment purchases which can be deducted immediately through Section 179 or bonus depreciation, and professional subscriptions and organizational memberships.

Because you are self-employed you also need to stay on top of quarterly estimated tax payments at both the federal and state level to avoid underpayment penalties, and working with a CPA who understands physician practices is really important here because the penalty for underpayment can be 8 percent or more of the shortfall. When looking for a CPA, try to find one who specializes in medical practices and ideally has experience with DPC specifically, and firms like Practice Math CPA, Physicians Thrive, and WealthKeel all focus on physician-specific financial advisory.