How Direct Primary Care Works at Grateful Living

Direct primary care (DPC) is a membership-based model where you pay a flat monthly fee directly to your physician, no insurance billing, no middlemen, no surprise charges. It gives you direct access to your doctor, transparent pricing, and a level of personalization that's simply not possible in a traditional, high-volume practice.

No, and we want to be clear about that. A Grateful Living membership is not insurance. We strongly recommend that members maintain some form of catastrophic or major medical coverage for hospitalizations, complex surgeries, and specialist care. What we do is handle the majority of your primary care needs at a dramatically lower cost and with much greater access.

You will be provided with a superbill upon request to submit to your insurance for reimbursement or to go toward your deductible. However, we are out-of-network with all insurance plans and will not submit charges to insurance.

Fill out our interest form on the Contact page. We'll review it and reach out to schedule an initial visit. Because we maintain a capped patient panel, we'll let you know about current availability at that time.

Transparency is our thing. Get our complete Services & Pricing Guide, with every membership tier and what's included, sent straight to your inbox.

A yearly panel of basic labs (CBC, CMP, lipids, TSH, A1c) is included in the membership price. For other labs we pass along the savings to our members. Example: the basic lab panel that we include runs $370+ through traditional billing, but only costs us about $25. That's one real difference the direct primary care model makes, and it's one of our favorite things to talk about.

We pass along the actual laboratory cost to our members without any markup. Example: a comprehensive metabolic panel that runs $370+ through traditional billing costs our members about $11. That's the real difference the direct primary care model makes, and it's one of our favorite things to talk about.

We see the whole family. We handle routine sick visits, wellness exams, sports physicals, and ongoing care for children. Dr. Hickman also has training in pediatric gynecology.

If membership is cancelled before 90 days, a $150 early cancellation fee applies. Re-enrollment requires a new application and fee and is subject to review and availability.

Members will receive scheduling preference. However, certain services will be available "a-la-carte" for non-members.

Absolutely. We work with and refer to specialists throughout Summit County and the broader Colorado network when needed. The difference is that we coordinate the care, serve as your advocate through the process, and actually follow up, we're your partner, not just a referral machine.

Yes, Dr. Hickman brings specialty-level women's health expertise to the practice. This includes menopause management, hormone replacement therapy, contraception, pelvic ultrasound, minor gynecological procedures, and infertility evaluation. This level of specialty care in a primary care setting is rare, and it's one of the things that makes Grateful Living distinct.

We see the whole family. We do not offer pediatric vaccines, but we handle routine sick visits, wellness exams, and ongoing care for children. We also offer home visits for little ones who do better in their own space.

Yes. Many visits can be handled over the phone or via video, and much of the day-to-day stuff (prescription refills, dose adjustments, simple questions) can be handled over text or chat without an in-person visit. That's the whole point.

This is one of our specialties. We embrace forward-thinking, evidence-based medicine, including peptide therapy, GLP-1 management, hormone optimization, and comprehensive metabolic testing. If you're interested in proactive, longevity-focused care, we'd love to talk with you.