Dr. Lisa Lucas left insurance-based medicine after struggling to get her own mother meaningful care through MS and breast cancer. She shares how she funded the leap, designed Fulcrum Family Health in Maine around trust, and why she works on wraparound insurance plans rather than against them.

Dr. Aleem Kanji finished his Baylor endocrinology fellowship with no student loan debt, then used the savings to open Ethos Endocrinology instead of taking a job. He tried a membership, found specialty patients did not want the commitment, and switched to per visit pricing. His landlord covered two thirds of the build out.

A hospital board president told Dr. Jennifer Allen he would eat 40 kinds of crow if her Direct Primary Care practice worked. She now has three clinics, 14 employees, and around 2,000 patients across Hermann, Washington, and O'Fallon, Missouri. She was a nurse and nurse practitioner for 18 years first, and a patient paid her way through medical school.