How is DPC accounting different from a typical medical practice?

There’s no insurance billing cycle to reconcile, but membership dues need to be recognized across the period they cover, and panel size and churn become the real leading indicators of practice health — not just monthly revenue.

We charge annual memberships paid upfront. How should that be booked?

As deferred revenue, recognized in equal monthly amounts across the membership term — not as income the month it’s collected. That keeps renewal-heavy months from looking artificially strong.

How do you think about provider compensation in a growing DPC practice?

We build a reasonable-compensation study tied to your specialty and market, then revisit it as panel size and membership revenue change — typically annually, or after any major panel shift.

Do you work with DPC practices outside Arizona?

Yes — most of our DPC clients are out of state. Everything runs through a secure document portal, video calls, and e-signatures.

Cash-Pay Medical → Direct Primary Care

Accounting for Direct Primary Care Practices.

Direct primary care runs on one number: panel size times PMPM. Revenue moves with every member gained or lost — before a single insurance claim is filed. That's what a generalist chart of accounts isn't built to track. We book dues as earned, watch panel and churn as real indicators, and plan quarterly, not in April.

Book a discovery call See DPC-specific problems

Direct primary care physician greeting a patient at check-in

Where DPC accounting goes wrong

The problems specific to this model.

Deferred membership revenue

A 12-month membership paid upfront isn’t 12 months of income today. It’s earned ratably as the months pass — book it wrong and your P&L overstates cash-rich renewal months and understates the rest of the year.

Churn hiding in the topline

Gross membership revenue can keep growing while your actual panel shrinks, if price increases mask attrition. We track panel count and churn rate alongside revenue, not instead of it.

Provider comp that outruns the panel

Owner-providers often keep a salary sized for the practice’s first year long after the panel has outgrown it, or underpay themselves even once membership dues support real distributions.

Startup runway vs. steady-state margin

The math that gets a DPC practice through its first eighteen panel-building months isn’t the math that governs it at steady state. Planning off the wrong phase hides real problems or creates false alarms.

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