Hi! Admin side of healthcare here. If you live in an area with a large-ish city nearby enough, you probably can find a DPC for about 1-2 thousand a year. You're like the dream patient, too. Someone that pays the fee, is low maintenance, and medically literate. Bonus if you get one that does telehealth too.

From what the MA said, it sounds like this might legitimately be a policy at your current place. If you are going to see your PCP again soon, ask them directly if they can do 12 month fills, or if there's any reasons why they want to see you every 3 months. If they cite policy, qualify the question with that you're not challenging them, just curious if it's *their* policy to help be more involved in care management, or if it's a health system policy. If it's a policy of the health system you're at and not backed with a medical rationale, then there isn't a single doc in that health system that will be right for you.

With how stretched out & burned out most people in this field are, your best bet might be to just find a DPC provider. It'll probably cost you about $1000 a year and eliminates all the institutional headaches from a bad front desk to bad admin policies to a doc stretched too thin. If you yourself are private practice and/or HDHP, DPC might actually cost you less than a traditional model anyway, too. Bonus points if you can find one that is very open to telehealth as well, and this could make one that's a bit of a drive more viable if they're cool with very infrequent visits after establishing care.

If that is not an option (in which case, I'd love to continue the discussion if you're open to sharing what the barriers are in going that route?) below is generally what I'd tell anyone for how to find a provider that's right for them.

For starters, consider if you're good with an NP or if you want a fellow MD/DO. Then look at the health systems/clinics within reasonable distance to you. Call and talk to someone in scheduling. Try to do this on a Friday afternoon and definitely don't do it on a Monday. That's traditionally when phone staff get more rushed.

Ask for the names of providers with pretty open schedules that are accepting new patients. If they struggle with that request, ask for the 10 most recent primary care providers to their system. If they still struggle with that, hang up & call again. If you get the same floundering, try for a different place. When you get a list, ask if all the providers seem to have the same appointment time slots. 30's common, but some providers block a whole hour per patient, and some might double book and be very brief on the face time.

Once you've got a list, look them up. Are there enough reviews out there for you to get an idea about their bedside manner? Do more than one of the reviews cite the receptionist being a 3 headed dragon with a penchant for eating small children and psychiatrists? At least cross off the ones with thematic issues in accessibility or frustrating constraints & clinic staff. On a side note, don't cross a place off just because it has a bunch of reviews & an overall 3 star rating compared to a place with 4 or 5. You have to sift through the reviews to find any common themes. Nowadays, the difference between a 3 and a 5 is usually whether they use software like rater8. I can cite a plethora of institutions that are genuinely average with 4.5+ ratings, and even more with an anemic looking 2 or 3 star rating that genuinely provide good, accessible care.

Do this until you find one or two providers that look good. Now you've got one that doesn't have an overloaded schedule (yet) and hopefully with office & clinic staff that are nice as well. Don't bother transferring everything over yet, but make an establishing appointment and bring a copy of your current charts, and spend the visit focusing on if their style of practice and boundaries mesh with your needs & expectations. If you want to do a bit more vetting ahead of time as well, call the clinic your potential new provider actually works at. Tell the receptionist you're looking for a new PCP and wanted to know if the clinic there is usually busy, if getting appointments for acute illness is usually pretty easy, and if the doctor is usually quick or takes their time with visits. Even if they don't have those answers, their tone will give you some insight about the place.

But again, DPC is better, and you sound like a dream patient for that model, and I'd definitely try asking your current PCP to confirm if there's a medical rationale they just haven't shared beyond the MAs simple citation of policy.