What the Growth of DTC Healthcare Means for Independent Practices
Patients have more ways to access healthcare outside a traditional practice. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) models now span prescription services, weight management, mental health, wellness, and other care areas. 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 simply as competition, but as a signal of what patients value. Consumers have more choices, raising their expectations for easier access and more responsive care.
The lesson is not that every aspect of healthcare should move online. It is that patients have more options when care is difficult to access. For independent practices, that raises an important question: What are DTC models making easier for patients, and where could your practice simplify access?
Build on the Relationship You Already Have
Independent practices already have something valuable: established clinical relationships and an 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 have to determine how patients will access them, what support they will need, and what additional work each offering will create.
Plan for the Work Around the Care
Adding a 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 to manage that support before adding a new service.
RxHarmony 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 remain in control of clinical decisions, treatment plans, and the patient relationship. The model strengthens and extends that relationship by supporting patients on the provider’s behalf.
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 the 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? Visit Rx-Harmony.com to explore available programs and schedule a demo to see how RxHarmony can work with your practice.
Sources
- Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “Trust Drives Consumer Value and Adoption in Life Sciences and Health Care.” June 17, 2026. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/consumer-trust-life-sciences-health-care.html
- Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “The Growing Disconnect Between Virtual Health Availability and Consumer Demand.” October 16, 2024. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/virtual-health-consumer-demand-and-availability.html
- RxHarmony. “How It Works for Providers.” https://rx-harmony.com/how-it-works-providers/
- RxHarmony. “Programs.” https://rx-harmony.com/programs/
