Medicine, the way it was meant to work.
Direct primary care isn't a radical idea. It's a return to a straightforward one: you pay your doctor directly, your doctor takes care of you, and no one else is in the room shaping that relationship.
What if your doctor actually knew you?
Do you feel lately like Google or ChatGPT is a more trustworthy source than your actual doctor? You're not alone. Many people find entering their symptoms and fears into a search box yields answers that feel more honest than what they get in a 15-minute visit. That's not because AI is a better doctor. It's because your doctor visit feels like speed dating and the search box feels like an honest listener. This is the problem Fathom is built to solve.
Going deeper means understanding the patient as a person: your life, your worries, your goals, what you're actually trying to accomplish. It means building a plan together from that foundation rather than a rushed visit where little is accomplished. The measure of a visit should be whether you leave knowing more about yourself and your health than when you came in.
The system isn't broken because the people inside it are bad.
It's broken because it's structurally incapable of giving them the time and context to get it right.
The average primary care appointment. Long enough to address one problem if nothing goes sideways. Not long enough to understand a patient.
The average panel size for a traditional primary care physician. At that scale, your doctor can't know your history without pulling up your chart.
With Fathom, the only people in the room are you and your doctor. No insurance middlemen dictating what's covered. No administrators optimizing your visit for billing codes.
Under a high-deductible plan, one visit can cost more than a full year of Fathom membership. One avoided visit, for something a well-trained internist can handle directly, returns your annual cost in a single encounter.
The healthcare system is built to obscure cost. Fathom operates on the opposite model: one physician, one fee, complete transparency. No needless urgent care visits, fewer specialist referrals, medicines sourced at cost, and transparent pricing on labs and tests.
Fathom membership isn't an added expense on top of your healthcare. It's the part that makes the rest of it work in your favor.
A retainer, not a subscription.
You pay a flat monthly rate. In return, you get a physician who knows your history inside and out — genuinely available when you need them, whose only professional obligation in your care is to you.
Think of it less like a subscription and more like a retainer: the kind of relationship you'd have with a trusted attorney who works with you regardless of the venue. Direct access by call or text. A trusted advisor by your side regardless of where it takes you. No competing DPC practice in the region offers this level of attention.
The specifics look different from patient to patient, because care should flex to what you actually need. But the principle is constant: you shouldn't lose your doctor just because the setting changed.
What changes
- Unlimited office visits
- Same-day or next-day appointments
- Extended, unhurried visits
- Direct call and text access
- After-hours availability for urgent needs
- Transparent pricing on labs and medications
- Comprehensive annual health assessment
What goes away
- Insurance middlemen in your care decisions
- A rotating cast of doctors you've never met
- Copays and surprise bills
- Phone trees and 3-week wait times
- Referrals for things that could be handled in one visit
Your doctor stays with you when the setting changes.
A trusted advisor who stays with your case, regardless of the venue.
Most primary care relationships pause the moment you leave the office. At Fathom, the commitment extends across settings, not just across the breadth of disease, but across the stages of illness.
In the Office
hover to exploreVisits that take as long as they need to take. A broader procedural skill set than most primary care, including orthopedic injections, dermatologic diagnosis and biopsy, so problems that would normally mean a specialist referral, a wait, and another bill get handled in one room by someone who already knows you.
At Home
hover to exploreWhen getting to the office isn't practical, your doctor comes to you. House calls aren't a novelty, they're how medicine worked before the system decided it was more efficient to make sick people drive.
In the Hospital
hover to exploreWhen you're admitted, you're suddenly being cared for by a team who's meeting you for the first time. Important details get lost, false assumptions get made. Dr. Bechtold maintains hospital privileges and EMR access, coordinates directly with your hospitalist and specialists, and stays involved throughout your stay and transition home.