Primary care feels broken: rushed appointments, long waits, endless forms, and a printout you can’t read. But what if the real problem isn’t your doctor… It's how we pay for care? 

In this episode of Curbside Health Cast, Dr. Brady Steineck explains physician compensation and why fee-for-service healthcare turns primary care into a visit factory. When the payment model rewards office visits, we get more visits, more clicks, more checkboxes, and less actual health. If you’ve ever wondered why doctors seem hurried, why prevention gets ignored, or why messaging your clinic still turns into “schedule an appointment,” this is the missing piece. We dig into value-based care, capitated payment, per-member-per-month funding, and how shared savings models can reward prevention and better outcomes. 

This conversation is for patients who want better access, clinicians who feel trapped on the treadmill, and healthcare leaders and payers who want real healthcare reform. Because if we pay for visits, we get visits, but if we pay for health, we can finally build a system designed for proactive care, chronic disease control, and real relationships.

Highlights:

→ You’ll learn the 3 forces that keep primary care stuck: why the visit becomes the unit of business, how fee-for-service squeezes time out of care, and why prevention gets treated like an afterthought. 

→ You’ll also hear a simple explanation of capitation and why per-member-per-month primary care funding can support proactive outreach, team-based care, and better access without forcing every problem into an office visit. 

→ Dr. Steineck breaks down shared savings and full-risk contracting models, and why quality metrics, patient experience, and outcome guardrails matter so this becomes the right care, not less care. 

→ Finally, you’ll get a practical call-to-action whether you’re a payer, healthcare executive, clinician, or patient, so you can spot (and support) a system that’s built to keep people well.

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