Changing Healthcare, One TikTok at a Time: An Update on Dr. Ashlee Hendry’s DPC Story

In this My DPC Story Patreon episode, Dr. Ashlee Hendry of Mid South DPC in Petal, Mississippi, for an inspiring update on her Direct Primary Care journey. Nearly four years after her clinic’s rapid growth, Dr. Ashlee Hendry discusses the evolution of healthcare access in her community, the power of patient advocacy, and the impact of price transparency. She shares invaluable business tips on scaling her practice, hiring staff, and navigating financial decisions like raising membership fees. Listeners will hear how social media - especially a viral TikTok on MRI and maternity cash pricing - has recently helped expand awareness (and in some cases enrollment!) of DPC nationwide. Dr. Ashlee Hendry also opens up about balancing motherhood with entrepreneurship and details her vision for a direct imaging center to further disrupt traditional healthcare barriers. 

Tune in for actionable advice on starting, growing, and marketing a DPC clinic, plus insights for medical students, residents, and physicians seeking burnout relief and sustainable careers in direct care. Whether you’re opening your first practice or expanding, this episode is full of practical wisdom, business strategies, and motivation for the future of primary care.

Get the FREE workbook to go along with our January RESET series HERE.

Learn how Zion HealthShare can pair with DPC to protect patients and physicians without returning to traditional insurance. Read more in the Toolkit, our DPC magazine, today. 

Leave Maryal a voicemail @ https://mydpcstory.com/contact

Transcript

Speaker 2: 1:33

this is such a treat especially for those of you who are needing a break after all of the festivities on Christmas Day. Dr. Ashley Hendry has lovingly joined back on the podcast. She hasn't even been here since season two people, so that's like almost four years ago. At that time, her clinic was only months old and she had already crossed 200 patients. I definitely will link her first episode in the show notes, so make sure you go listen to that and pause here, come back after you've listened to that if you have not listened to that episode before. But your story has always been incredible in terms of just your history as to becoming a physician. And a person who has, gone into a practice where you had so many people ready for mid south DB, c, like, on day one and you've, you've done the build outs, you've done your own canvases with the blues and the whites. Like I, I mean, you've come so far, but yet. The culture has stayed the same and become even more robust. So thank you so much for coming back on. I'm so excited for the audience to hear your update today.

Speaker 3: 2:38

Well, thank you for having me. It's a privilege and I'm glad to be here and kind of share how things have been going.

Speaker 2: 2:44

As a review, where is Petal Mississippi and what's healthcare access like in petal?

Speaker 3: 2:50

So Petal Mississippi is a part of what we call kind of the Pine Belt South Central area. So we're not quite on the south, not really in the middle, but in that area. But I would say healthcare access here is decent. We have two local hospital systems that we can get imaging at. We have specialists there and then. About 30 minutes away, there's another hospital. So some parts of it can get semi-rural, but we do have access to a lot of specialists.

Speaker 2: 3:19

And just thinking about four years ago when you were, in the pre-contemplative planning DPC stage compared to now, I'm wondering if you can look at your patients and think about. If the reason for joining your clinic has changed much because while you do have access, people are also still choosing to see you.

Speaker 3: 3:41

Yeah, I, I think so. I think maybe in the beginning it was more of a strictly looking at numbers and, okay, well this is cool. We can join for$90 a month and get these services. But I think that now just word of mouth in the community about the level of care that we provide. And just how we go above and beyond for our patients. Not only from the patients themselves, but the specialists as well have kind of seen the DPC difference. And once that word starts taking off, there's really no going back. So people join for the level of care

Speaker 2: 4:15

that's amazing. And. I think about how we all had those opening days where we were like having our elevator pitch versions, and those are constantly changing. But if somebody asks you about, what, what exactly is Midsouth, DPC? What do you tell them today?

Speaker 3: 4:32

So I would say that we are, we work strictly for patients and not health insurance companies. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, just a general overview because. I think what people are realizing is how broken the healthcare system is, and that you really need an advocate just to make it through it. And so that's what we provide for patients. Obviously, the pricing is great. We get access to cheap labs, cheap imaging. We can call around and find the best deals for our patients, but what we really are are healthcare advocates and we're here to help you navigate the system. And

Speaker 2: 5:07

I think it's so pertinent. I mean, we're recording this in December of 2025, right before 2026, and the, stuff is going to hit the fan in terms of absolutely people's access in terms of affordability. And people are scared. And so I, I do think that. Whereas having an advocate maybe would've been like, okay, sure, but it, it's better that, I know that the price is something that I can afford. I do agree that having a person who's advocating for you in the system is way more valuable than it used to be in the

Speaker 3: 5:40

eyes of our patients. Absolutely. Yeah. And everybody's looking at where they're spending their healthcare dollars and I think what people are starting to realize is that, maybe insurance is not what it should be. It's not what we thought it was. And we're here to kind of bridge that gap and bring the doctor and the patient back together and cut out the middleman so everybody can have access to better care, affordable care, and price transparency.

Speaker 2: 6:05

Yeah, absolutely. So I wanna ask here about. You going, just like full born to your TPC because you were, you had so many patients wanting to join on day one. Do you feel that, now we're almost four years later do you feel like you're an established DPC? And if so, why and how is that different from day

Speaker 3: 6:26

one? Yeah. In the beginning, I would say really for about the first. Year and a half. Even though like I filled the panel pretty quickly. I think I went to a wait list at like 13 months and David was the exact same. We both filled up like real crazy fast. Financially we're still looking at, there were months that I had to like transfer money out of my personal account to pay the business account, pay my practice here, reimburse myself there. So I had to make some kind of hard decisions when it came to how do we grow and expand because. The need is there. The wait list is there. Patients are constantly trying to get in, and what I realized was that I was going to have to raise prices at some point. So I think that was really kind of the pivotal moment for me as a business owner outside of being a doctor, was how do I get it to the next level? How do we grow this? And so I would honestly say that was probably a harder decision and I was more nervous about doing that than I was quitting my job working in the healthcare system. Wow. But once I decided this is what we've gotta do, we're moving forward and doing that I raised prices by$15 per month. And I will say we had a few people leave over that. Like I, I ran the numbers a while back. I think it was like 22 people left out of 600. Some of them came back, but a lot of patients didn't say anything. They were like, sure, whatever you need to do, we trust in you. We trust in the company, the clinic, and that money allowed me to grow and to what the clinic is now.

Speaker 2: 8:00

That's amazing. And I do think that this is really important for people to hear, especially as we're approaching January 1st and the cost of goods on our end is going up as well. The, the, the creativity that some of us are having to get for how do we, go in buy speculums together so we don't always have to pay like. That high price for 500 and we don't need 500. I mean, there's, there's lots of things that are happening on our end to be able to run our businesses. So I think that's important to hear that, with extra funding, what you were able to do was, and tell us about how your clinic has grown in terms of people working at your clinic, as well as the, the patients. The patients, and the locations of your

Speaker 3: 8:41

clinic. So started off obviously me, David, and Dustin at Petal. Early on and since then we've opened a second location. So now we have myself, David Snodgrass, April Hinton, our new nurse practitioner who is wonderful, Dustin, of course. Jennifer Summer. Our three LPNs that are just patients are obsessed with them, and we recently hired like the sweetest receptionist named Stephanie. So. Seven total staff, two locations, and the last time I checked over 800 or so patients total. That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 9:17

And tell us about how your day-to-day looks versus because, and are you, are you mainly at petal or do you also go between the two

Speaker 3: 9:25

clinics? I go to both. So. I would, it's been interesting. I rotate days and with scheduling my EMR. I can't let them pick a location to come to, so we've had to be creative on how to remind patients, Dr. Hendry's here this day, she's in PET that day. But now everybody kind of knows that I'm at one location Monday, Wednesday, Friday, the other one, Tuesday, Thursday. But I like being at both. Mm-hmm. Because I have patients who live closer to one, and then I have some that live closer to the other one. But at the end of the day, they're about 10 miles apart. So if somebody needs to see me that normally comes to one location, they're okay with driving the 10 miles to come see me at the other one.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Yeah. Awesome. And. How was that journey? This is a very loaded question because I've seen the, I've seen the journey, in live time. But for the audience, how was the journey to open a second location?

Speaker 3: 10:15

So it was cool, I own this one, so I'm no longer paying rent. I'm still paying rent at the first one. But so yeah, I kind of got the idea once I had some money saved up from increasing the membership fees, I was like, I can kind of make a down payment on something now. I found a duplex in downtown Hattiesburg that had been used as a therapy office before, so it was already kind of set up in medical clinic fashion. It still needed some work and obviously my husband does construction, so had him ready to go. But I purchased that last fall and we had about a lot more time to do this build out versus the first one in 30 days. But I think it took us about eight months to get everything finished, start to end. Lots of roadblocks in the way dealing with the historic district, permitting. All of these things I had no idea about. I had to learn how to become basically a makeshift contractor myself to kind of get through the process, but it was cool. I got to design everything. Paint everything all the artwork in the clinic, I did that again. So I just really feel like it's my baby and I'm really proud of it. I

Speaker 2: 11:20

think that's so awesome. And I, again, I just, I say that because of where you came from and when you decided to do DPC, it's just like you're running laps around that goal. Man, it's so awesome to see you just thrive and then, have more patients and more access in your community. So here I wanna ask about. Patients really, like we're talking about this time that we're in, patients are really looking for something different. And I wanna highlight that you made a TikTok post that went totally viral and I was commenting before we started recording that multiple close friends of mine who are DPC physicians have said like. It's because of Dr. Henry's TikTok that a patient just joined my practice. Oh, and another one just joined my practice again this week because Dr. Henry's TikTok. So tell us about what, what, what TikTok for those people who haven't seen it, what was your TikTok and what behooved you to make that TikTok in the beginning?

Speaker 3: 12:17

Yeah, man, it's it that's so awesome to hear that. But you know, I wish I could say it was some like master well thought out plan, but what it really boiled down to is some random guy on TikTok commented on another one of my videos and essentially said that I was lying. That there's no way you can get an MRI for$280. And that to me was a challenge. So, really the idea just came from, okay, well I'll call the hospital centers and you can see how much the MRIs cost. So that's how the first one started. And that TikTok basically was me just calling around to local imaging centers. I called like one freestanding imaging center, and then of course the hospitals and just asking them like, Hey, how much is an MRI lumbar spine? Without contrast, I put the prices in the left side and it was just wild how that took off. And it's, that one's up to like 3 million views. The other one about pregnancy, what pricing is for vaginal delivery versus a cesarean section? That one's up to like 7 million views. I mean. And what what's been interesting to me is to kind of see in the comments like who is surprised because it's not the people who are self-pay, it's the people who have health insurance who have all of a sudden realized like, wait a second, they charged me more for that. Yeah. And I have insurance. And it's something that I've known for years. My patients know this. But since I've been on a wait list, I don't have a ton of new patients. And so I think I have kind of forgotten that the general public has no idea that that is really what happens. And it's true. It's not a lie. It's not ai. I didn't have friends pretend to be the imaging centers. These are really, this is really how it is.

Speaker 2: 13:59

Yeah. I, I love that. And also, I just. It, it, it just speaks to our culture that people would say like, oh, that's fake. That's ai. Yeah. And yes, yes, yes. You are so on point with it. It is not the people who have assistance with health insurance. It's the people who pay outta their pocket, get it from their employers that are still paying,$400 for labs or whatever, and you're just like. You, you can do that. Absolutely. Or you can just do transparent cash pricing for imaging, for pathology, for labs. And so, it's wonderful that like with your. With your education, you are educating and changing a culture of what is healthcare and that is not insurance. Yes. So I'm just such a fan. Such a fan of that. And I'm wondering, have people also reached out to you who are colleagues to, question what you're doing or to question like, how do I do this?

Speaker 3: 14:55

Yeah. That, I feel like that started pretty early on though. Like within the first year of me owning the clinic I was getting. Doctors would reach out. My former co-residents, people I went to med school with, and they were like, wait, wait, wait. How? How'd you do this? Like, is it that hard? What do we need to do? Because like, we're burnout, we're miserable. And so that's something that I've just heard really across the board from doctors for the last four years. And I'm always willing to help. I'm always willing to give advice because I wanna pay it forward because so many DPC doctors helps me open the clinic. I could not have done it without asking for advice on the groups and just getting literal, like the best advice from everybody. And so that's been going on since the beginning. But I do feel like there has been a recent uptick in people reaching out about that. Something that's been really cool to me is that I've had a few program directors from residencies reach out and want me to come talk to the residents and like, that's something that I really want to do in the next year, just to let people know before they graduate residency and sign these huge contracts and have to go through the trauma of working in the system. I think you could do this fresh out of residency. There's, there's another way.

Speaker 2: 16:03

This is so exciting. There is a whole bunch of content that we're working on for medical students and residents on the podcast in particular. And because, because people are asking for it, when you're speaking to residents, you're literally changing the trajectory of what they see as healthcare and what they see, especially for people like you and I as family medicine. Yeah. Like it's not just what you see in fee for service, and I think that's. So powerful. I, I will say here too that when it comes to talking with residents and residency directors. Are they asking you specifically about general, what is DPC? That's what we're seeing a lot of Versus are there people who are asking you specifically about the business of DPC? Both.

Speaker 3: 16:48

Yeah, and I always am very transparent about the business side of things, so I have no issues talking about that. And I want them to know like, there you could do this and have a good career. You can make. The same, if not more money than you make working in the system. And I think that it's important to discuss that.'cause a lot of times people don't want to talk about money and it's, in the south it's uncouth to say these things, but you have to, that's how you get the new generation on board with doing this. Mm-hmm. Is we all have a lot of student loans. We, we've spent all of our years learning how to be doctors. We're well trained. And when you're in residency, you don't really know how it's going to be until you step foot into that first contract at that huge corporate hospital and then it's too late. Then you're in for three years. You have a 30 page contract, you can get out though it's difficult. So I just think educating that group of new physicians on a better way is huge. It's fantastic.

Speaker 2: 17:46

And definitely if you're listening and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm a medical student or resident and I didn't know that it's possible doing this in residency. There are multiple examples of physicians who have shared on my TPC story in particular who have opened during residency and who have shared how they did that. So definitely know that there's content out there that. Is proving what Dr. He is saying is true for sure. And when it comes to growing your clinic, and clearly we, you talked about having a second location of which you own, which is awesome. Congratulations on that. Thank you. You've also had this journey of going beyond just having you, Dustin and David. And so talk to us about how you found people, because you have a, a much bigger team now, how you are finding people who are excited about the mission and who are, joining on to deliver that mission and extend what you dreamt of on day one.

Speaker 3: 18:46

Yeah, so I guess whenever I opened the second location, I did like a, I did a profile on indeed.com, like, looking for a physician nurse practitioner to somebody to hire on for a new location. I got a lot of applications like over 45. And so I interviewed a lot of people and I ended up going with April though because she actually reached out to me before I was even like in the process of buying the second location. She she worked for a local hospital system and, she knew about DPC. She had researched what it was, and she wanted to come because she believed in the movement and she wanted to do. What was right for her patients and give them better care. So I kind of always went back to her in the applications and she ended up just being the perfect fit. Patients love her. She's, she's amazing. And the staff, I actually, had the privilege of knowing most of them at my former place of employment. They came over unsolicited, of course. So that made things easier already knowing that my nurses were great, I had worked with them before, and really now I just feel like if I, when I'm ready to open another location, I'll be able to post and get a lot of good applicants because Word has just traveled so fast and everybody wants to get out of the system and do a better job and have the flexibility of being a human again by going the DPC route.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Absolutely. And in terms of your staff are, do you have people as 10 90 nines? Do you have people as w twos and or both?

Speaker 3: 20:16

So we have a couple, like my best friend, she's our float nurse, so she's 10 99, but everybody else is a W2 employee, so. Mm-hmm. We have a great accountant. We have a great payroll person that helps me out with that, so that's one less thing I really have to do. All of that is taken care of by another professional that knows how to do taxes and keep up with things correctly. Awesome. Love that.

Speaker 2: 20:37

One of the things I wanted to ask you is you are also now expecting your fourth kiddo and. You, you're a DPC doctor while you're expecting, and so, I, I want to ask about this journey because there are people out there who are looking to grow their families, but they're scared because they're like, I have to have the health insurance. I have to have one thing or the other. So talk to us about your experience, in pregnancy and in terms of like what, what your plans are when delivery time comes around. Because you have this, bird's eye view of what you can and can't do in the system and what you can and can't do outside of the system.

Speaker 3: 21:21

Yeah. So I think I have a pretty unique perspective on that because I had my most recent son five years ago in the system, and now I'm pregnant. Owning my own DPC clinic out outside of the system. And I'm actually excited, now, but looking back five years ago, that was literally one of the most traumatizing times of my life. Everything changes when your employer finds out that you're pregnant. And this is something that I haven't ever really talked about before on social media, but when I was eight months pregnant, my former employer terminated me without cause. And so it was during the pandemic. Obviously when your contract is termed without, cause you don't get a reason why. But basically you're gone. I didn't have a chance to say goodbye to my patients. I didn't have a chance to, make sure that they were taken care of. It was just basically like I, they were done with me and I think that. A lot of doctors are treated that way, especially mothers in the system. And, it's, there's a better way. And now I know that if I need to take off, if I'm sick, if I, if something happens, I can move my patients around and communicate with them and have zero issues whatsoever. My son Lennox has febrile seizures and something that I've always encouraged other doctors who wanna do DPC is, I'm like, look. I can literally, when my kid is sick, I don't go to work. I text my patients. Yeah. And I say, look, Lennox has a fever. They know he has seizures whenever he has a fever and I can convert them to telehealth or reschedule them. And there are zero issues whatsoever. You could never do that in the system. You, you just can't. So I'm really excited now to have ownership of my life again. To control how the time I need off to be there for my family, to also be there for my patients. And I guess my plan, I haven't really a hundred percent decided yet. I'm gonna kind of see how it goes, but, I'm gonna take a month off and then I'm gonna do telehealth, but I've got David and April also, if somebody needs to be seen in the office, if they're sick, they can see my patients while I'm out. So I do have the privilege of that, and I know a lot of. Doctors don't have that, that they can rely on. But I will say that DPC doctors are so helpful. Mm-hmm. So I guarantee if you posted online and said, Hey, is anybody licensed in my state that could take over my patients while I'm on maternity leave? Like literally somebody is going to help you because the community is just amazing. So that's kind of my plan is to have them see patients while I'm out and then do telehealth. And then what I'm really excited about is once you know I'm ready to come back to work after the second month, I'm gonna bring the baby to work and have like a little nursery area built in the back. And my husband's gonna stay there with it during the day so I can be close to it and not have to leave it at home.

Speaker 2: 24:09

Yeah, it's, it's beautiful. And I will say just, the idea that you can craft your own schedule because you own your schedule. Yeah, it is a very different world and I will say that, this is not necessarily when it comes to my clinic side of things, but Natalia Highland, who a lot of people met at the DBC summit, who is our head of marketing and strategy at the podcast she just had her third boy in October and. I, I was so excited to be someone to say, you just let me know when you're coming back. Like, I'm so excited for you to come back when you're ready, but like, what are the things that you need to do? I will try to take over those as much as possible. People probably noticed that the socials went down,'cause Marielle couldn't handle that all in one plate. But but I, I loved being in a position to be someone who is. Not treating people like you were treated. I mean, that is disgusting. It is not foreign, which is really sad. Yeah. But also it's like, wow, like how valued are we by the system? Not at all when cases like this happen, so, yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:17

Well, and I thought, well, maybe it's just one bad apple, right? Like this job, it's a bust, but you know, the next one was, not to that level the same way, but it, I think this is a common theme in the system, once you. Question things or stand up for things, or you become a problem. I mean, they can cut you off just like that. And they don't care, and it's just, it's, it's sad and I don't think there's any way to fix that. So like, really all you can do is get out, work for yourself, make your own rules, and do what's right for your patients.

Speaker 2: 25:48

Absolutely. And when it comes to delivery time that I, I wonder like, had you guys entertained having a DPC doctor for yourselves who, there's some DPC doctors out there who they'll deliver at the hospital for the patient and the patient just has their agreement with them, like Dr. Amber Becken, Hower I'm just wondering. What do you have, and it doesn't necessarily have to be what you guys are doing, but like what are things that you're, you've thought of that other people can keep in their minds if they're either growing their family right now and about to deliver or they're going to plan on having or they're planning on growing their family in the future and are, and are not necessarily aware of different ways to have a, a baby when you're self-employed.

Speaker 3: 26:33

Yeah. Well, and that was, that's interesting'cause that was the second video I did that went viral on TikTok. And obviously I had some motivation to do that because I had just found out I was pregnant when I made the video. But what I found out after posting the video of the prices and seeing what people with insurance were charged to have a baby with zero complications, it was absolutely wild. And it was about five times more than what it was cash. And so if you're deductible and your out-of-pocket max is. 10, 15,000, you're gonna pay that plus your premiums for the entire pregnancy, when really you could have a normal vaginal delivery for less than$5,000, including the hospital stay, all inclusive anesthesia, facility fee, a C-section around$7,000 and. So I feel like for the people who are working and can't afford health insurance, because there's, you just literally cannot, there's still a way to have a child in our current healthcare system, and a lot of these places do payment plans with you. Obviously if you go into labor and you go to the hospital, they're going to treat you. They're not gonna turn you away because you don't have great health insurance coverage. So there's always a way to do that. And I'm glad that I was able to post that video and show a lot of people that it's possible.

Speaker 2: 27:47

And I will say sadly, where we trained, we had at least one case that I can remember where our hospital was, the, the, the place you went to where you most of the time didn't have insurance. And we had people who showed up at insured hospitals and then they were. Somehow dropped off at our emergency room, even though that they were in labor. And so that stuff I have, I have seen it happen. And this is where, again, I go back to your comment about advocacy. It is really important for someone to, pick up the phone and whoever's taking care of you in an emergency room for a doctor to call on your behalf to say. Look like this is what is going on. I know that, you know you're about to discharge them, but these are the things I need you to know about my patient because you are advocating for them based on the relationship that you have with them. And so there's that definitely, you can't even put a price on some of the stuff that we've done as DBC physicians for our patients to keep them. From being ignored, to keep them from being, charged up the wazoo for things that were like, you, you realize you can ask for the cash price for that. So I think it's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. And in terms of. The future of Mid-South. I mean, you're approaching, you're closer to your five fifth year than your first year. And you talked about even the possibility of a third location. What are the things that you look at in your business to even entertain, even know? Another staff person coming on or another location opening, because I, I feel it's different for everybody, but at the same time, I'm wondering in your business and in your history, what has driven you to think about like, oh, that would be a great opportunity for mid Souths today.

Speaker 3: 30:15

So I just look at the numbers. I look at enrollment. I, my staff helps me a lot with enrollment, but I'm always keeping up with how many we have on the wait list. Like how many are signing up every week. Obviously right now we're having a, a large increase in growth and so I'm just kind of predicting out what's six months looks like, and I know that April is going to be full. Then at that point it's how much money's in the savings account, how much money is in the bank account, and kind of knowing how much I would have to pay, make a down payment for another building. So in my head there's always a plan of what, a year down the road, five years down the road looks like, and you know how to best invest your money and how to, scale a business and not overshoot it and get yourself in a bind. So I don't, I don't know where I learned how to do that. I think it's just. Maybe a skill that I've acquired after being in this for four years. But that's kind of my plan for the future, is to open a third location. I've been looking at that very seriously and I think that next year after the baby comes is probably the time that I'm going to, approach that goal. But, for my five year plan, I really want to open a direct imaging facility locally. And so that's something else I've been. Scratching the surface on and kind of getting into the legal side of things and the regulatory side of things and starting to do the groundwork of how, what that looks like.

Speaker 2: 31:34

That's amazing. And I know that, again, it's like I'm, I'm sort of biased because I've seen this discussion on online and not and whatnot, but tell us about. Where did that even, where did that idea come from and how can a primary care doctor open an imaging center? I'm totally playing devil's advocate here.

Speaker 3: 31:53

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it comes from doing prior authorizations and not only doing them, but getting them approved, and then the patient coming and telling you they're charged more for the scan that you have spent an hour getting approved on a peer-to-peer. And once you realize how broken that part of the system is, it's just something that would not only benefit, obviously my patients at the clinic, but literally every patient probably in a 150 mile radius. So I think that would be huge for the community. And you know what's just really fascinating to me is when you start getting into looking at what it takes to do that. Some of the certificate of need laws are just absolutely mind blowing. And I feel like they're put in place there to kind of offset the market. So people can't do this. Mm-hmm. So primary care doctors couldn't possibly open an imaging center. But you know, where there's a will, there's a way. And that's really just something that I wanna focus on and figure out how to get a round or through the CON requirements and have MR MRIs, CT X-ray, ultrasound, and actual price list online so people know that every scan is going to be this price, regardless if you have insurance or not.

Speaker 2: 33:03

Yeah, and I just think that, this is again, going back to as we've come to the end of the season, I definitely will say that a lot of talk has been around what do we do now that HR one has passed with the HSA language in it such that a person can fund their. HSA as well as pay for DPC, and I just think about how there's, yes, the IRS has come out with, with, the, the recommendations for the, for HR one going forward, however. It's, it's stories like what you're talking about, it's possibilities that law that lawmakers have not even thought, thought of before. Even people in your community who do you know, healthcare, things like an FQHC that is looking for a different way to function or a a public health department who's looking for a different way to collaborate with their community physicians. You are not just like, ah, would be a cool idea. I think it's very awesome that you're taking on the, and this also doesn't surprise me'cause you're badass in general, but it's like, you are taking this and you're saying like, come on, bring it like, I, let's do this. Like, let's go. And I think that that is. Also something we have because we are our own business owners and we're not bogged down by the people who are like, yeah, great idea, never gonna happen. It's like watching office space in real time. That, that would suck, for, for us to have the, just, that idea really sucks. So, anyways, but I, I think that's awesome and I, I can't wait to hear. When your doors open for, for your imaging center. I, I am putting that out there in the world. Absolutely. It'll happen. Yeah. Just going back into the social media exposure that you've brought to DPC just recently with your different posts on TikTok and for the people who are. Opening DPC, they've opened, they've been in practice, for a year or more. And they're, they're not necessarily sure how to, how to highlight direct primary care, their own clinic, the work of the movement on social media. What would you say to a person who is like, I, I would love to do that, but like, I don't know how to even do social media.

Speaker 3: 35:19

Yeah, so I would say just be yourself and like a lot of the content that I post has really nothing to do with DPC or being a doctor. But you know, I post about my, my kids, my family, my art, baking, like whatever my hobby of the month is like, I show people that I'm also human. Absolutely. I talk about the healthcare system and for me it's not difficult because these are the conversations I have every single day with patients. And I think just getting past that initial fear of people judging you and everybody seeing it because it's free advertising. I have spent$0 on advertising since opening the clinic, and I don't plan on ever having to do that because now. People know they can listen to me and hear about things, and I think that all doctors should be on social media talking about this because that's really how we flip the system and get the word out, is we've got to tell people what's really happening behind closed doors. And that's, it's the perfect time to do that. I feel like. Right now there's a lot of doctors on social media talking about this, a lot of DPC doctors advocating. And so now is the time strike while the iron is hot and just put it out there. If you don't get a lot of views, that's okay, but keep making content and keep putting out your truth. I love that.

Speaker 2: 36:38

Going into 2026. Because you have been in business for multiple years, you've added more staff open to second location. Thinking about a third, thinking about imaging center, I'm wondering in your Q1, what are some things that you do in your business to get ready for the rest of the

Speaker 3: 36:56

year? So, obviously looking at where money's going. Trying to get the best deals on supplies, shopping around, comparing prices negotiating prices and then also just kind of looking at volume, knowing how many patients I need to add to get to a certain amount, and just basically saving up enough money that you can make the next step. And, I think that it's just important to keep an eye on your bank account, keep an eye on profits, keep an eye on supplies, and. It's okay to kind of delegate some of that stuff out to have people help you with, but you really always need to know what's going on financially with your business and where you're at.

Speaker 2: 37:31

I love that. So well said. Thank you so much Dr. Henry for joining us today again, and I am wishing you all the luck in the future. And again, congratulations on your baby. Thank you so much. It's been great seeing you again, and thanks for having me on.

37:48

Thanks for tuning in to My DPC Story. If this episode inspired you, please leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more physicians find these stories when they need them the most. If you're new to DPC, you're just beginning your journey. Head to the Start Here age@mydpcstory.com. I've put together a practical startup guide and highlighted the episodes I think are essential for beginners. Got a question or a challenge you want to hear addressed on the show? Go to the Contact Page mydpcstory.com and leave me a voice message. And be sure to check out our my DPC story, Patreon. As a member of our Patreon, you'll find commercial free episodes and extended versions of the regular episodes. There's something for everyone with both free content and a paid tier that helps support the show. Follow us on socials@mydpcstory and check us out online at mydpcstory.com. Until next time, this is Maryal Concepcion.