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EPISODE LIBRARY
Find the episode that fits you.
300+ honest conversations with physicians who left insurance-driven medicine. Search a word, or browse the listed categories.
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CATEGORY LIST
What Is Direct Primary Care? A PA-Turned-Physician Explains Why He Left the Insurance System
Ever been bounced between offices just to get a referral? There's a name for the alternative: direct primary care. A PA-turned-physician explains what DPC really is, why it isn't concierge medicine, and how he built a full practice near Palm Springs with zero marketing.
When Failure Isn't Failure: Dr. Timothy Blain on Burnout, Illness, and Closing His Direct Primary Care Practice
Dr. Timothy Blain The Anatomy of Physician Burnout Dr. Blain describes a burnout curve that many primary care doctors will recognize instantly. It isn't the volume of patients alone. It's the impossible math of caring deeply about people you don't have time to help. "You see the patient and they have problems that you know you can fix, you know you're capable, but you just don't have time," he explains. Early in his career he could at least refer patients to a specialist and
From Corporate Medicine to Integrative Direct Primary Care: How Dr. April Soto Built a Practice Rooted in Boundaries, Healing, and Authenticity
Dr. April Soto left corporate medicine to build an integrative Direct Primary Care practice with ketamine-assisted therapy, MCAS care, and firm boundaries.
You Did Not Go to Medical School to Answer the Phone
Justin Lam, CEO of Cool Blue VA There is a number that should stop every Direct Primary Care physician in their tracks. Twenty-seven percent. THAT is how much of the average physician's day actually goes to direct patient care. Nearly half of the rest disappears into desk work, inboxes, prior authorizations, and the long quiet hold music of trying to reach somebody else's office. For every hour you spend with a patient, you are spending close to two hours on everything that i
Leaving Corporate Medicine for DPC: How Dr. Jeremiah Fillo Rebuilt a Sustainable Family Medicine Career
Dr. Jeremiah Fillo of Big Trees MD What happens to a family physician when the system he trained inside of decides he no longer has value? That is the question at the center of one of the most personal episodes of the My DPC Story podcast. Host Dr. Maryal Concepcion stepped away from her usual introduction and turned the microphone over to a very special guest before sitting down with her husband, Dr. Jeremiah Fillo of Big Trees MD in Arnold, California. What followed was an
Texas DPC: Funding a Clinic With Historic Tax Credits
Featuring Dr. Manuel Vogt of Texas DPC on the My DPC Story podcast Dr. Manuel Vogt photo: Voyage San Antonio A Texas physician couple built two Direct Primary Care clinics, funded a historic renovation with tax credits, and grew to a full panel. Here is how. When Dr. Manuel Vogt talks about leaving the insurance system, he keeps coming back to one word: renovation. Not the kind with paint and permits, although there was plenty of that too, but the larger project of taking wha
When the State Makes Healthcare Harder, DPC Doctors Make It Possible: Inside Dr. Emily Holt's Year Two at Poppy Direct Care
One year ago, Dr. Emily Holt opened the doors of Poppy Direct Care in a 100-year-old house in Uptown New Orleans. Attendees of the 2025 DPC Summit walked through her clinic, met her patients in the neighborhood pizza shop, and watched a mission-driven family physician build something real from the ground up. A year later, almost everything around her has changed. What hasn't changed is Dr. Holt. A Year of Building, Quietly and Intentionally Poppy's panel has more than doubled
Suing for Her Freedom: How Dr. Nyasha Spears Won Her Non-Compete Battle and Built Amity Creek Direct Primary Care in Duluth, Minnesota
Dr. Nyasha Spears When Dr. Nyasha Spears walked into a mandatory 4 PM meeting that had been called with less than four hours notice, she already knew something was wrong. Her century-old community clinic in downtown Duluth, the legacy practice founded by Dr. Rudy nearly a hundred years earlier, was being closed by the corporate hospital system that had absorbed it. She had 36 days to figure out the rest of her career. What happened next is one of the most important DPC origin
How Dr. Jihan Ansari Built Harbor Direct Primary Care from Patient Zero (And What Every Aspiring DPC Physician Can Learn From Her Story)
Dr. Jihan Ansari If you've ever wondered whether you can leave the insurance-based system and build a thriving direct primary care practice without a massive marketing budget, a perfect business plan, or even total certainty about what you're doing, Dr. Jihan Ansari's story is for you. Dr. Ansari is the co-founder of Harbor Direct Primary Care in South Orange County, California, where she practices alongside her husband, Dr. Pedram Ansari. Her path to DPC wasn't paved with a
"I Was a Passenger for So Many Years. Now I'm in the Driver's Seat."
How Dr. Nadia Sirdar Left Hospital Medicine, Opted Out of Medicare, and Built a Bethesda DPC Practice Rooted in Aging in Place, Women's Midlife Health, and Real Relationships Dr. Nadia Sirdar There is a moment most physicians know but rarely name. You're at the bedside. You're walking a family through hospice. You're saying the right words, the trained words, the compassionate words. And somewhere in the middle of it, you realize you can't quite feel them anymore. The work is
How to Market a Direct Specialty Care Practice: Lessons from Dr. Ashley Agan of Scottie ENT
By My DPC Story | April 2026 | Marketing in Direct Care Series Dr. Ashley Agan of Scottie ENT When most physicians think about marketing their private practice, they imagine expensive ad campaigns, billboards along the highway, or a social media strategy that feels more performative than authentic. Dr. Ashley Agan , otolaryngologist and founder of Scottie ENT in Dallas, Texas, took a different path entirely and it is working. In this episode of the My DPC Story podcast, Dr. A
When Your Dream Job Gets Sold: How Dr. Josh Chow Found His Way Back to the Medicine He Loved
Dr. Josh and Katherine Chow of Ohana Medical There is a version of DPC that a lot of physicians dream about when they first hear about this model. A small, physician-owned practice. A doctor who knows your name, answers your texts, and actually has time to sit with you. A space where the philosophy is to take care of the physicians and providers so they can take care of the patients. Dr. Josh Chow, DO found that version of DPC. He worked inside it for five and a half years. A
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