About 50 people pre-enrolled at Nspire Primary Care and roughly 10 actually joined. Dr. Jade Norris opened in Las Vegas weeks after having her second daughter, rents a single room inside another provider's wellness center where patients flip a light switch instead of talking to a receptionist, and still works urgent care two days a week so the practice never has to grow under pressure.

Dr. Tiffanny Blythe priced Blue Lotus Family Medicine so low she barely covered her living expenses, until the furnace broke and the math stopped working. She raised 85 percent of her panel from $50 to $75 with three months of notice and lost a handful of people. The higher price funds a scholarship program with no application and no gatekeeping, where a patient can pay as little as $5 a month.

Dr. Kyle Adams formed his LLC on his cell phone between urgent care patients, then opened Auburn Direct Primary Care with about ten people preenrolled and one patient at 9am on day one. He had already cleared $360,000 in student loans. He grew past 300 patients on a Facebook budget that never topped $200 a month, and he goes home at five.