How One Physician Bought a DPC Practice Instead of Building One From Scratch

Dr. Feneisha Franklin of Living Well Family Medicine

What happens when a retiring doctor needs an exit and a burned-out physician needs a door? The story of Living Well Family Medicine offers a blueprint that the DPC movement increasingly needs.

After ten years of corporate medicine across three different health systems, Dr. Feneisha Franklin had a decision to make. She could leave clinical medicine altogether, or she could find a different way to practice. What she found was a Direct Primary Care clinic seven minutes from her house, owned by a physician who had been quietly hoping someone like her would show up.

The result is one of the most instructive DPC origin stories in recent memory, not because it is dramatic, but because it is practical. Dr. Franklin did not start from zero. She purchased an existing practice, inherited a seasoned staff, kept a loyal patient panel, and navigated a legal and financial gauntlet that most DPC resources simply do not cover. Her story aired on the My DPC Story podcast during a month dedicated to financial sustainability in Direct Primary Care, and it is packed with lessons for physicians on both ends of the transition.

The Problem DPC Is Starting to Face

The DPC movement is maturing. Practices that launched a decade ago now have physicians approaching retirement. Some of those doctors are quietly reducing their patient panels, holding on because they do not want to sell to a venture capital group or hand their patients back to the very system they escaped.

At the same time, there are employed physicians, thousands of them, who are burned out, underpaid relative to their effort, and desperate for a different model. They have heard about DPC. They think it might be a unicorn. They do not know where to start.

The gap between these two groups is an opportunity. Dr. Franklin walked through it.

Finding a Mentor Who Became a Seller

Dr. Franklin discovered DPC in 2022 through a friend from residency. She read the books, did the research, and then did something most physicians do not do: she cold-called the nearest DPC physician she could find and asked if she could learn from her.

That physician was Dr. Carter of Living Well Family Medicine in Lexington, South Carolina. Dr. Carter had been wanting to retire for five years. She had a staff she loved, patients who begged her to stay, and a lease that had been collecting dust. When Dr. Franklin left a voicemail asking about mentorship, the conversation pivoted fast.

Within one to two weeks, they were discussing a sale.

"When I came in, I wasn't under any notion that I was going to own this," Dr. Franklin said. "But then I saw her, and it was simple. It was joy. I wanted that."

What Buying a Practice Actually Involves

The transition happened at a speed that surprised even Dr. Franklin. She left her previous employer on a Friday and took ownership of Living Well Family Medicine on a Monday. That compressed timeline meant she was learning the mechanics of business ownership in real time, often under penalty if she got things wrong.

Here is what she says physicians need to evaluate before purchasing an existing DPC practice.

Profit and loss statements. Not just the most recent year. Pull the previous three years to understand the trajectory of the business, particularly if the seller has been winding down their patient panel in preparation for retirement. A practice in retirement mode looks very different from a practice at full capacity.

Equipment age and depreciation. Dr. Carter was transparent that some equipment had been in the office since she opened. That meant Dr. Franklin walked in knowing she would need to budget for new computers, updated supplies, and other replacements. Knowing in advance is the difference between a surprise and a line item.

Insurance costs. Malpractice, cybersecurity, workers compensation, and property insurance all need to be requoted under the new owner. What the previous physician paid is not what you will pay.

Medicare patient volume. In South Carolina, opting out of Medicare takes three months to take effect. Dr. Franklin transitioned over a weekend, which meant she could not charge her Medicare patients for those first three months. She chose to provide their care for free rather than dismiss them. That is an admirable decision with a real financial cost. Know how many Medicare patients are in the panel before you close the deal.

All utilities, accounts, and passwords. Dr. Carter had started the business more than a decade earlier and was the primary account holder on everything from the phone line to the lawn service. Transferring those accounts takes time and creates gaps. Dr. Franklin recommends building a transition binder, similar to what a homebuyer receives at closing, that lists every vendor, account number, and contact.

Whether to buy the building. Dr. Carter owned the physical space. Dr. Franklin's attorney advised her to lease first and purchase later, which she describes as some of the best guidance she received. Taking on both a practice acquisition and a real estate purchase simultaneously would have been too much too fast.

The Financial Team You Need Before You Need It

One of the most repeated pieces of advice from Dr. Franklin is this: build your advisory team before you think you need one.

She had a healthcare attorney since residency. Her training program connected residents with financial and legal professionals early, and she stayed with that attorney through every institutional transition and into her DPC acquisition. When non-compete clauses complicated her exit from her last employer, that attorney was already up to speed.

She also has two financial advisors, a CPA, and a business consultant who reviews her monthly numbers with her. She meets with her financial team regularly, tracking patient enrollment, expenses, medication costs, and salary projections.

"I didn't know what a P and L was before becoming a business owner," she said. "I have since learned."

She is candid that the first few months were survival mode. She was so focused on acquiring the business and seeing patients that she delayed looking at her numbers. Quarterly tax obligations caught her off guard. She took penalties she did not need to take because she did not know the questions to ask.

Her advice is to find advisors who are willing to learn alongside you, even if they do not specialize in DPC specifically. What matters is that they know business, know healthcare, and are willing to say "I don't know, but I'll find out."

Pricing, Legacy Members, and a New Patient Schedule

When Dr. Franklin took over, she made a deliberate choice to honor Dr. Carter's pricing for existing patients. She saw it as a fair exchange: they stayed, she kept the fee structure they had agreed to. For new patients, she set her own pricing, landing around $85 per month for individuals, $160 for couples, and $200 for families with two or more children. She also added an enrollment fee to ensure new patients had skin in the game.

She runs a waiting list on her website, uses it to manage growth intentionally, and keeps her new patient onboarding to a pace that does not overwhelm her team or erode access for her existing panel.

"You can't lose sight of the ones who have already bought in," she said. "But you realistically have to grow. It's about working that into the schedule."

What Patients Said at the Meet and Greet

Before Dr. Carter officially stepped away, the two physicians held a meet and greet for the patient panel. It was equal parts farewell and introduction, and the message from patients was consistent: relief.

They did not want to go back to the system. They wanted to know if Sonya and Michelle, the longtime staff members, were staying. When Dr. Franklin said yes, the room relaxed. Dr. Carter's implicit endorsement carried weight. If she trusted this physician, the patients trusted this physician.

That trust handoff is one of the underappreciated assets in a practice acquisition.

The Question Every Retiring DPC Physician Should Be Asking

Dr. Franklin is already thinking about her own future exit. She wants to mentor physicians the way Dr. Carter mentored her. She wants to grow the practice, potentially hire additional physicians, and eventually pass the torch the same way it was passed to her.

Her position on selling to venture capital or private equity is simple: if someone else holds the purse strings, they dictate care. The entire value of DPC is that it is physician-owned and physician-run. Selling to a non-physician entity undermines the thing that made the practice worth buying in the first place.

For retiring DPC physicians, her message is equally clear. There are physicians out there who are exactly where she was in 2023, burned out, searching, one conversation away from finding their door. If you have a practice worth preserving, a cold call from the right physician might already be on its way.

Living Well Family Medicine

Dr. Feneisha Franklin practices at Living Well Family Medicine in Lexington, South Carolina, where she is the only DPC physician in the area. She is currently accepting new patients. You can learn more and join the waitlist through the practice directly.

To hear the full conversation, including her tips on evaluating a practice purchase, navigating non-competes, building a financial advisory team, and what her kids think about DPC, listen to her episode on the My DPC Story podcast.

My DPC Story is a podcast network and education platform dedicated to helping physicians launch and grow insurance-free primary care practices. New episodes release monthly at mydpcstory.com.

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