Dallas pediatrician Dr. Tonya McDonald was laid off with 21 other physicians and opened Radiance Pediatrics, a house-call direct primary care practice, in 2019. Seven years and hundreds of kids later, she shares how she built it for less than the cost of a used car, how COVID doubled her practice, and how she uses Texas’s free CPAN network for pediatric mental health. In this episode: How her own pediatrician, the first Black pediatrician in Beaumont, Texas, shaped how she talks to kidsRunnin...

Medicare Open Enrollment: A DPC Physician’s Toolkit for 2027 Changes Today we discuss why Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices still field urgent calls during Medicare open enrollment when patients’ coverage changes affect care outside the DPC clinic. Host Maryal Concepcion introduces the Fall 2026 Medicare Toolkit and gives a five-question CMS-based quiz covering 2027 updates: Find out what the Part D out-of-pocket maximum is with a deductible and an option to spread costs via th...

Opening a DPC Practice After Training Through COVID: Dr. Nada Farooqui, MD of RAWQ Medicine Dr. Nada Farooqui, MD trained in family medicine at the height of the pandemic. Her unopposed residency taught her to do everything. Then she sat through job interviews where someone else defined her scope. After a few years in wound care and hyperbarics, one Direct Primary Care summit settled it. Dr. Farooqui is the founder of RAWQ Medicine, a Direct Primary Care practice opening this fall in Hillsbor...

What does a Direct Primary Care practice look like six years after opening? In this annual anniversary episode of My DPC Story, Dr. Maryal Concepcion catches up with Dr. Christina Mutch and Dr. Mutch of Defiant, Dr. Lauren Hughes of Bloom, and Dr. Deepti Mundkur of My Happy Doctor. They all opened their practices in 2020. These doctors get real about growing a DPC practice. They talk about adding an RN who changed everything, bringing on a fourth physician, and writing SOPs for the first time...

Under current Medicare rules, a physician who opts out of Medicare for their DPC practice can't bill Medicare anywhere else. That means no hospitalist shifts, no SNF work and no hospice. AAFP Resolution 504, introduced by the New Mexico chapter, asks the AAFP to advocate for a partial opt-out by practice setting. The Congress of Delegates votes on it in October. Dr. Shannon Connolly is co-owner of Open Arms Direct Primary Care in Southern California, a past CAFP president and a CAFP delegate ...

Today a DPC physician in Iowa, 25 months into her DPC practice, emailed us with three decisions she's weighing, and one challenge: "If there are still spots, convince me to come." Challenge accepted. In this mini My DPC Story episode, Drs. Clodagh Ryan and host Maryal Concepcion answer her directly and walk through how the Illinois DPC Summit (open to DPC docs in ALL STATES!) meets each of the three things she's actually asking: "Help me look at the books." Friday morning's session, The Busin...

Dr. Brian Juan toured with rock bands and played dueling piano bars for more than a decade before he became a family doctor. Three months into Metronome Family Medicine, his solo Direct Primary Care practice in Longmont, Colorado, he talks about what it actually took to make the leap. Dr. Brian Juan spent most of his 20s and 30s on the road, first touring with rock and jam bands, then playing dueling pianos in bars around Boulder and Denver. His dad was a Filipino immigrant physician who ran ...

What should a direct primary care physician actually pay themselves? On this episode of My DPC Story, Dr. Maryal Concepcion sits down with Nate Goodman, CPA, founder of Goodman CPA, the accounting firm that works exclusively with direct primary care and direct specialty care practices. Nate is also a DPC patient. His family's experience with direct primary care in the Black Mountains of North Carolina is why his firm stopped taking non-direct care clients in 2024. Together they walk through 1...

Dr. Jillian Klaucke, MD, FAWM. Board-certified family physician at Sandpoint Premier Direct Primary Care, Idaho. Wilderness medicine fellow. Eight years into Direct Primary Care, Dr. Klaucke shares what actually works running a rural family medicine practice without insurance. Her practice runs on three pillars: teamwork, accountability, and patient safety. Teamwork means working with patients as partners. When imaging is needed, someone follows up to confirm it happened. Accountability means...

Dr. Sarai Ambert-Pompey opened Libélula Primary Care in Boise, Idaho. "Libélula" is Spanish for dragonfly, chosen for transformation. One year in, she joins Dr. Maryal Concepcion to talk about what changed when she left the VA for Direct Primary Care. Her path is unconventional: CompUSA and GameStop, Sony PlayStation reviewer training, oncology research at OHSU, then internal medicine residency in Boise. At the VA she joined a Primary Care Center of Excellence and helped launch the Boise Clin...