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Independent Practice Path- A Safer Way to Leave Employed Medicine · DPC Life: Direct Primary Care Podcast

• 0:00
  Today I don't have a guest because I wanted to talk about
• 0:03
  something new that I'm starting. Over the past couple of years,
• 0:07
  I've been talking with several physicians that are thinking
• 0:12
  about leaving employed medicine and opening up ADPC practice and
• 0:17
  they want to know how to as in exactly what steps to take.
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  And we have a lot of great books now that are essentially
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  checklists and not just books, but online resources, many
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  things that show you exactly how to open up a DPC practice.
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  And truly, that was actually not too hard to open it up.
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  I mean, it's basically, you know, you get your PLLC and then
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  all the steps about opening up your practice, getting your
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  malpractice, things like that. So that part wasn't hard.
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  But the other thing that people are really, really worried
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  about, actually, there's a few things.
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  And this past weekend at the DPC Women event, I saw the same
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  things over and over that I've been noticing over the past
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  several years. Physicians are hesitant to leave
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  because of the fear of uncertainty.
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  A lot of times they're scared of leaving their stable income
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  called the golden handcuffs. Sometimes they also are fearful
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  of what will happen and will they open and people won't come
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  because they don't like them. How do they explain DPC to
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  people? They for sure understand it, but
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  how do they get people to understand it that are so tied
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  to their insurance? How do they get people to
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  understand the value of having a DPC doctor?
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  So it's very, very clear now that physicians who want to go
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  into DPC, they don't need more information about how to open.
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  What they need is a clear path, a transition from employed
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  physician into independent practice owner.
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  So today I want to explain something that I am starting.
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  It's called the Independent Practice Path, or IPP.
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  It just makes me think of the song.
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  Yeah, you know me. Anyway, this is not really a
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  course on exactly how to open up a DPC.
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  I think that there are great courses out there, particularly
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  one that I did myself, and I have so many good things to say
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  about it. The DPC Alliance Masterminds.
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  It's 2 1/2 days of intense, intense deep dive of how to open
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  up a DPC practice. Great experience.
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  And that will give you really all the nuts and bolts about how
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  to open up a practice. But IPP is more of a structured
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  transition from employed physician to independent
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  practice owner. And this is structured in a way
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  to help to help prepare you not only from a system standpoint to
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  have your practice ready to go on day one, but also to prepare
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  you from a mindset standpoint of becoming a physician owner, a
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  physician entrepreneur to becoming the boss.
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  I mean, it's very difficult if if you haven't been in that
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  position before, if you've always been an employed
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  physician. So what I've been hearing is
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  really the uncertainty and the fear of how, how do I do that?
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  How do I become, how do I become a practice owner in a reasonable
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  and sustainable way? How do I get patients?
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  How do I explain DPC to them? How do I prepare?
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  How do I make sure that I'm going to be able to make the
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  income that I need? So that's what the independent
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  practice path is. It's it's going through all of
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  those things to help you transition from employed
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  physician to independent practice owner so that when you
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  open your doors, you are not actually just opening.
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  It's a continuation of what you've started several months
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  prior. So that when you open, you've
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  already started, you've already explained DPC to people, you've
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  already had people sign up on your wait list so that you are
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  ready to go on day one with patients signed up.
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  That is the goal with IPP. So what we'll do through the
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  program is help you get things set up before you actually leave
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  your employed practice position. You're going to learn how to
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  explain DPC to patients and to other people, to employers, to
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  family members, other doctors, colleagues, and you'll start
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  those conversations early. From the very beginning, you're
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  going to formulate several different ways of explaining DPC
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  because some people are going to resonate more with the with the
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  cost savings and some will resonate more with the time
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  spent with the physician. You're also going to start
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  building your systems. And I always say that you want
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  to start how you want to finish. So you don't want to start with
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  a like a Google worksheet and, and just your phone and that's
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  it. And just remembering to call
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  people back and remembering to e-mail them.
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  That is not how you want to start.
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  We started like that a little bit and it was not great.
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  I'll see. It wasn't great.
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  It worked. But you know, we, we have
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  developed our systems since then.
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  So I want you to have systems that will, you would find them
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  in a mature DPC practice because I want you to start the way you
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  want to finish. And so you're going to have help
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  with explaining DPC to people, developing the patient interest,
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  reaching out to people. You're going to build those
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  systems so that when people look for your website, they're going
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  to get answers from your website.
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  And when they call you, they're going to get answers and
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  there's, there's a direction for them, there's a path for them
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  when they come to your website and they see what you're doing
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  and they learn about DPC and they decide they want to be a
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  part of your practice. They have a place to go.
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  They know what comes next. So that when you open up, you
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  are not, you're not scrambling for patients.
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  You're going to be preparing for that day for months ahead of
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  time. So the goal isn't just to open
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  your practice. The goal is to open a practice
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  with momentum. You've got patience, you already
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  have systems in place, your networking is in place.
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  So you're not just opening your doors and waiting for people to
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  come to you. And even if by the end of the
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  IPP cohort you haven't left your job yet, you will already have
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  your systems in place so that you can answer patient
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  questions, you can collect names and information, and then when
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  you're ready to open, you will be fully supported by your
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  systems. I'm starting this as a small
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  initial cohort because this works best when people can talk
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  to each other and hear how other people are doing things.
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  And they work through some of these these situations together.
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  The physicians that I designed this for aren't just slightly
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  DPC curious, they are fully committed.
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  They know that something has to change and they don't want to
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  make a reckless decision. They want to have some idea of
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  what's coming next, what they need to do.
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  They want to have a transition plan.
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  I feel like the independent practice path is what I've been
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  trying to. I've been trying to create this
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  for a while and it's taken me a while to figure it out exactly
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  the pieces and how to do this. So it's been a long process
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  reaching this, but I feel like really this is what I set out to
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  do over a year ago. I wanted to help doctors who are
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  ready to get out of the employed system, ready to get out of the
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  fee for service system. I wanted to help them be able to
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  succeed in DPCI. Was hearing about so many
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  different practices where people were saying they weren't getting
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  the patients, they were worried about staying open because they
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  haven't gotten the patients that they thought they were going to
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  get. And sometimes you can't really
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  pinpoint why that is. There are certain things that
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  you can do to try to make sure that you will succeed.
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  And that's what I've been trying to put together is how how do
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  you create a system that helps people succeed?
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  So I think that this is it. I'm very excited about it and I
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  look forward to working with several of you to get you
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  started to opening your DPC, feeling supported and confident
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  and having the systems ready to go to support you.
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  Whether it's just going to be you solo or you may have an
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  assistant, the idea is to have you ready to go on day one, that
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  you'll have patients already, that you're not just going to be
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  sitting around on day one. We want you to have patients
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  coming in your door for their first visit with you on day.
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  If you've been listening to the podcast, you probably fall into
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  one of three categories. 1, you are a little bit curious about
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  DPC. You're not really thinking about
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  it, but maybe this is planting a seed in your mind about is this
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  possible to open a DPC? There's another group that
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  listens to the podcast that is thinking about opening a DPC,
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  but they're stuck because of worrying about the process of
• 9:42
  actually opening or the, the mind chatter about, you know, is
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  it possible? Can I do this?
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  The imposter syndrome. Then there's a third group of
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  people that are ready to change. They are very close.
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  They realize that this the current system that they're in
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  is not sustainable. And so they're very close to
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  pulling the trigger and going DPC.
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  So if you recognize yourself in these coaching calls and other
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  conversations, you can't ignore DPC anymore.
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  I always say that once you've seen it, you can't Unsee it.
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  If that's you, then you are exactly who would benefit from
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  IPP. So if it sounds like you are in
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  that third group and you are seriously thinking about getting
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  out of employed practice and you want to talk to me about this,
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  just e-mail me. That's the easiest thing.
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  Tell me about your situation where you are in the process of
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  planning a DPC and then we can figure out whether this would be
• 10:45
  a good fit for you. Just remember, no matter where
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  you are on your DPC journey, your DPC family's got your back.
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  See you next week on the next episode.