Patients have more ways than ever to get care outside a traditional practice. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) models now cover prescription services, weight management, mental health, wellness, and other areas of care. In Deloitte’s 2025 U.S. Health Care Consumer Survey, 23% of respondents reported using a DTC health offering.
For independent practitioners, that growth is worth watching not just as competition, but as a signal of what patients value. With more choices available, patients now expect easier access and more responsive care.
The lesson is not that every part of healthcare should move online. It is that patients look for other options when care is hard to access. For independent practices, that raises an important question: What are DTC models making easier for patients, and where could your practice make access simpler?
Build on the Relationship You Already Have
Independent practices already have something valuable: established clinical relationships and a real understanding of their patients’ health histories and goals.
A patient who trusts a practitioner for one area of care may have other needs the practice is well positioned to address. For practitioners in longevity, metabolic health, hormone health, wellness, and related fields, this creates an opportunity to offer more of that care within the existing patient relationship.
But adding services is only the first step. Practices also need to decide how patients will access them, what support patients will need, and what additional work each new offering will create.
Plan for the Work Around the Care
Every new program also adds work. Patients may need help getting started, understanding the program, managing refills, or getting answers to questions. Practices need to decide how they will manage that support before adding a new service.
Revelstone helps independent practices offer services in areas such as longevity, wellness, weight management, women’s and men’s health, sexual health, aesthetics, and allergy care. Practitioners stay in control of clinical decisions, treatment plans, and the patient relationship. Our model strengthens and extends that relationship by supporting patients on the provider’s behalf.
That support includes patient education and communication, program enrollment, billing, medication and refill coordination, and ongoing program coordination. This allows practices to add services without placing every new responsibility on practitioners or their existing staff.
Responding to changing patient expectations does not require independent practices to become DTC companies. The opportunity is to make care easier to access while building on the clinical relationships already in place.
Before adding your next service, ask: Does it fit our patients and our practice? How will patients access it? What support will they need? And who will provide that support?
These questions can help practices make thoughtful decisions about growth while keeping the clinical relationship at the center of care.
Interested in expanding your services with the support to manage what comes with them?
Schedule a demo to see how Revelstone can work with your practice.
Reference Sources
- Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “Trust Drives Consumer Value and Adoption in Life Sciences and Health Care.” June 17, 2026. deloitte.com
- Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “The Growing Disconnect Between Virtual Health Availability and Consumer Demand.” October 16, 2024. deloitte.com
- Revelstone Health Management. “How It Works for Providers.” imranfarabi.tech/provider-how-it-works/
- Revelstone Health Management. “Programs.” imranfarabi.tech/programs/
