True North Direct Primary Care opens in Hamilton

by Nathan Boddy

Dr. Robert Hart spent years imagining an improved model for healthcare, and has now taken steps to make it a reality by opening True North Direct Primary Care in Hamilton. Not only has Dr. Hart and his business partner, Wendy Hanson, begun providing a Direct Primary Care model to residents of the Bitterroot Valley, but they’ve also introduced a Transformative Health service that can be found at the same location.  

“There is currently a huge moral and ethical dilemma in mainstream medicine these days,” says Dr. Hart, going on to say that much of our modern medicine is expensive, inefficient, impersonal, and largely dictated by what he calls the ‘industrial health complex.’

“Oftentimes, we find ourselves in a position where insurance companies and large health conglomerates are deciding what is best for patients and directing the physicians who actually see the patient,” says Hart. That dynamic has caused him and many other healthcare providers to question, “who are we really working for, the patient or the industry?”

It was precisely that question that drove Dr. Hart and Wendy Hanson – True North’s Chief Operations Officer and Registered Nurse –  to choose a model of healthcare that provides an alternative. Direct Primary Care (DPC) streamlines healthcare by removing third parties from the patient/provider relationship, and does so at a monthly cost lower than most insurance deductibles. While insurance can still be used to pay for other aspects of one’s healthcare needs such as labs, imaging, and medications, the cornerstone of stable healthcare – primary care – is paid for by a simple monthly membership fee. With membership comes full and unlimited access to services such as well child and pediatric appointments, acute/urgent care, annual wellness exams, sports medicine, chronic medical issue management and minor procedures, many of which can be done with same or next day appointments. True North’s current asking price for this subscription service is $200 a month for a family of four, a price that is less than most insurance plan deductibles.

“It shouldn’t cost $24,000 a year to treat strep throat and high blood pressure,” says Hart, “yet a majority of people have to pay in excess of this amount before their insurance starts covering the cost of their care.” Added to those costs are often the frustrations of long wait times, and the inefficiency of impersonal care, all of which Hart thinks can be avoided through Direct Primary Care.

Transformative Health, a separate service offered by True North, is one that takes a holistic approach to healthcare by focusing on multiple aspects of human health, including nutrition, life coaching and counseling, functional training, pain reduction and injury prevention. True North has employed a team of professionals to help clients reform their lives by tackling issues such as obesity and chronic conditions with notable results. 

Dr. Hart, himself a CrossFit enthusiast and U.S. Army Ranger, says that his decision to start the Transformative Health program grew out of conversations with Bitterroot CrossFit owner, Jeff Lewis, about the rise in chronic disease in America and how it was tied to lifestyle. Hart says that he could see how the traditional model of simply being told by your doctor once a year to “eat healthy and exercise” does little for most people. Despite having given that same advice for 20 years, he says the results were often the same: weight gain, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and more.  

“It doesn’t matter how much medication we prescribe, we can’t out-prescribe an unhealthy lifestyle,” said Hart.

Chronic diseases such as obesity, pre-diabetes, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease affect 6 out of 10 Americans with rates seeming to rise on an annual basis. To that end, True North Transformative Health promotes its service as a life changing contract, to take control over body and mind without diet fads or gimmicks.  

The Transformative Health team at True North uses physical therapy and behavioral health, as well as CrossFit training and conditioning, to reverse or prevent the development of chronic disease. True North’s website clearly points out that quick and easy fixes are not possible, and that no medication or surgery can treat an unhealthy lifestyle. Still, Dr. Hart’s patients report tremendous success.

“The human condition is multidimensional and complex,” says Hart. “Without addressing the underlying causes [of chronic conditions], modern medications and the limited efforts made by mainstream medicine only serve as band-aids and not as sustainable long-term solutions.”

To read testimonials and learn more about True North’s Transformative Health and Direct Primary Care, their website can be found at: https://truenorthdpc.health and their physical location is: 1986 North 1st Street, just north of Hamilton RV Sales.