McMurray, PA- Dr. Lori Brown is opening her own medical practice, Simplicity Direct Primary Care, in Peters Township on March 15, 2021 after resigning from AHN last year. It’s a direct primary care practice, which means patients pay a membership fee for direct access to her via in-office appointments, video visits, email and even texting her cell phone. Dr. Brown, an internal medicine physician, doesn’t participate with any insurance plans so anyone, including the uninsured, can join her practice if they choose.

“I was tired of the greedy corporate motto of ‘see more patients faster.’ The corporate focus is on billing, coding and metrics rather than quality patient care. Patients were being rushed through visits that they waited weeks or months for. It wasn’t fair to them and certainly doesn’t give me time to practice good medicine. I was spending more time charting and checking all the regulatory boxes imposed on physicians by insurance companies, than I was in the room with my patients. It’s ridiculous.

Direct primary care, also referred to as DPC, is becoming a more popular choice among primary care physicians. Although there’s a membership fee, the cost savings that are offered via discounted labs, medications and imaging studies often offset the price. It has also been shown that DPC members had 40% fewer ER visits than those in traditional practices.

Membership at her DPC practice offers many benefits that traditional primary care offices don’t have including same/next day appointments, longer appointment times, price transparency, video or phone visits, reduced lab fees, discounted meds and more. Perhaps most importantly, patients will always see their personal physician, Dr. Brown, who will also be available during evenings and weekends for urgent issues.

“It almost sounds too good to be true, right? The reason it works is because I can limit my patient panel to what I feel comfortable with, which will be 350-400 patients only. My colleagues in traditional practices have 2,500 patients each! When one physician has that many patients to care for, it’s impossible to give each one the personalized attention and time they deserve.”

Dr. Brown is a native of Washington County, growing up outside of Avella and graduating from Burgettstown High School. She went on to graduate from Allegheny College and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She’s been practicing medicine for 12 years.

“Because of my non-compete contract, I wasn’t allowed to practice medicine within a certain distance from my old practice for one year. My roots are here and I have no plans on leaving so I waited it out, but now I’m back. It feels great to regain my autonomy while giving patients the care they deserve. This is old school medicine meets the 21st century.”

Simplicity Direct Primary Care focuses on simplifying patient care by eliminating the hassle created by insurance companies and hospital administrators. My goal is to restore the doctor-patient relationship by providing personalized, high quality care with improved accessibility, cost savings, price transparency, and simply more time.

For more details see services and pricing or call Dr. Brown directly at 724-299-1733.