By Samantha Kupiainen
For more than 25 years, Dr. Phillip Burrer has been a family care doctor in Colorado, Massachusetts and Indiana. He’s worked for hospital-owned practices, private practices and in small-town settings. Most recently, he ventured into direct primary care when he opened his own practice, Valor Direct Primary Care, Feb. 1 at 131 N. Range Line Rd. in Carmel.
“I’ve practiced several places, and I’ve been in several different types of employment, and I have decided there’s a better way of caring for people,” Burrer said. “I found the only way I could do that effectively was to do it with myself being the boss as opposed to working for a company or a hospital. That’s why I jumped into direct primary care. I wanted to practice it where I lived.”
In the direct primary care model, patients make periodic payments to a physician or practice directly in exchange for a predetermined set of services.
At Valor, patients pay monthly. In return, they can visit the practice as often as needed, even after hours or on weekends. Insurance is not involved.
“What you get for that monthly cost is basically full access to the doctor any time, as many visits as you need,” Burrer said. “The idea is if you called us, pretty much we’d open the doors anytime you need us. We’re actually limiting how many patients we take care of just so we can take care of those patients the best.”
Benefits of direct primary care, according to Burrer, include same day or next day appointments, more personable visits and receiving care where patients are most comfortable, such as home visits, telehealth visits or even talking at a coffee shop if that’s what the patient wants.
The staff at Valor Direct Primary Care consists of Burrer and his wife, Cheri, a registered nurse. She adopted the role of practice manager, which is a combination of receptionist, nurse, and medical assistant.
“We are a two-person show, so we are getting down to the basics,” Burrer said. “The idea is when you call our office, you either get me picking up the phone or you’re getting my wife picking up the phone. There’s going to be no complicated leaving messages and getting back to you later. The purpose of this is to be a lean practice where the patients always come first.”
The idea for Burrer to open his own practice originated more than 10 years ago. Burrer found value in primary care and the need for urgent care, while also seeing the convenience of telemedicine.
“I’m trying to meld them all together,” Burrer said. “Now that we’ve decided that this is where we want to stay and spend the rest of our career, it made sense to open our practice and do it. We’ve been planning the practice very specifically probably for about a year. We’re open for business and looking to expand.”
Learn more at valordpc.com.
