What Is Direct Primary Care with Jessica McCartin, FNP-C

Jessica McCartin, FNP-C

Jessica has over 15 years of clinical experience in healthcare. She has served in primary care as a Certified Family Nurse Practitioner for over five years and is a Certified Medical Examiner for DOT/CDL physicals. She is board certified through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

As an experienced registered nurse, Jessica’s background includes long-term care, orthopedics, medical-surgical nursing, and surgery. She also served as a full-time faculty member at Galen College of Nursing, where she worked as a clinical instructor in medical-surgical nursing, ICU, and adult health.

Driven by a desire to improve access, quality, and personalization of care, Jessica opened a Direct Primary Care clinic, Elite Primary Care & Wellness. Through this model, she focuses on preventative medicine, optimized wellness, and meaningful patient relationships that allow for unhurried, comprehensive care.

Jessica continues to support and advance the nursing profession by serving as a nurse practitioner preceptor, mentoring future providers and contributing to the development of the next generation of nurses.

She is licensed to practice in both Indiana and Kentucky.

https://eliteprimarycareandwellnessclinic.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So yeah. Uh fun fact, I learned today that it might be possible that you could breathe through your butt.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Well, air comes out, I guess it can go in too.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

So there's a fish that can do that. And then they did a study and said pigs can probably do it too. And they started looking at them and testing them. So then they said, Hey, can mankind do it? Well, apparently in a way.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Okay, I'm intrigued.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Uh yeah. So, anyways, on this episode of the Nerdbrand Podcast, I'm with Jessica Carton and uh with Elite Primary Care and Wellness Clinic. And uh yeah, um, we're gonna be talking about some medical stuff and how you breathe through your butt. Hey everybody, thanks for coming into this episode. I am with Jessica McGarden. So, Jessica, tell everybody who you are and what you do and give us a little bio.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Sure. So I am the founder of Elite Primary Care and Wellness here in New Albany, Indiana. What I do is I operate and own a direct primary care clinic. So rather than your traditional-based insurance, uh, we just have a practice that is based on a monthly subscription. So all of your care is included in that. It's all inclusive, and I treat across the lifespan. Um, I did not grow up here. I'm from Greencastle, Indiana, and I moved after college down here. So I've been in New Albany for about 15 years now, just looking for more job opportunities. Um, so my husband and I have been together for about 15 years. I got two old dogs, and it's just the two of us. Just focusing on uh, you know, growing the business and really pushing the boundaries as far as where healthcare is now and just trying to be part of that, you know, push to make things better for people.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, yeah. Well, asides from the um, you know, breathing through your butt, because I know people listening are going like, Jason, what the heck is going on with you? Um, it is a real study, uh, is a fluid, by the way, that somehow they they're trying to figure out like if people aren't ventilators, so it's actually a legitimate thing. I don't recommend you Google it. Um, I just don't imagine. But it is out there, no pun intended, on that. Um so uh yeah, your your way of providing health care, like I I there's a lot of um delays that happen with the VA with veteran affairs and being able to get health care. And you mentioned to me like you're able to kind of fill in some gaps if they need them.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Yeah, so I do see a lot of um VA patients who go there regularly, regularly for their checkups, but in the interim, if they need something acutely or something comes up, they really struggle to get in in a timely manner or get their care coordinated really effectively to kind of meet that mark of what their health care should be. And so some of the members will come to me and I just they keep their VA benefits and do what they're supposed to do, but really I'm managing their day in and day out primary care services and keeping them well, focusing on a preventative, proactive approach so that I'm filling that gap. They're maintaining the benefit.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah, so a little bit, I know it's your soapbox here on this one. Um recently the uh HHS director and uh Dr. Oz, I guess he's over at Medicare, um, made a statement that hospitals now have to be transparent on pricing.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Hallelujah. I mean it's about time.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

I don't know how many years has it been since that's probably been overdue uh since the dawn of time. Yeah. I I've always wondered how a a system could be allowed to blind bill or get away with that for so long because you know you already have the apprehension of going in needing care, and then while you're there, you're worried about the bills.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yeah, and I find that a lot. Unfortunately, um, when clients are asking about pricing to join the clinic, I'm I'm like, how can you put a price on your your health? But really we talk about what brings them stress, and a lot of it is just all surrounding financial. And we should not be worried about our finances when it comes to our health or our family's health. We should be focused on, okay, what's the next best decision to get them to a good place where they're healthy, they're living a good quality of life, um, and we can focus on prevention, but instead everything's reactive because people are scared of health care, in my opinion. They don't know how much things are gonna cost, so they tend to take a backseat and just be reactive to okay, what's happening right now? I just need to address this.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah, yeah. I'll turn up the the juice a little bit on your stuff. Um, anyways, yeah, it's um you know, I I was seeing I always see these stories where like somebody would go in and they had a heart attack and then they get out and they get better and everything, and then they get like a bill for like $120,000, and it's like, and that's that's a mortgage.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Yeah, I mean it it's insane the cost of health care. And I always encourage people to get an itemized bill. I can't tell you how many clients have actually looked at their itemized bill and they might be billed for the same thing three times when let's just say they got one bag of fluids, but they were charged for three. So you can actually they charge per bag. Yes, or per menopuncture, which is an IV stick. So if you only received one IV and they bill you for four, like they tried to they they stuck you four times, that's a fraudulent charge. So you can fight that. But if no one knows to get an itemized bill and to audit it yourself, and you don't have that health literacy or financial literacy to do so, you know, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Wow. You also work with uh HSAs, which are health savings accounts, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yeah. So when the big beautiful bill got passed, that was one good thing that came out of it, which that um yeah, membership-based plans are can be used with HSAs. So that's something now as of January 1st this year, that we're able to include that in our membership. So that makes healthcare more accessible to those people.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, yeah. I even R. Danielle's like, yeah, I think I'm gonna hire, you know, go with Jessica on on some care. Um, she's not here today because she probably does need it. I need to find out what Chinese place she went to. I'll let the audience infer the rest. Um, but yeah, it it's it's and you're based in southern Indiana, but you can also service uh people that are in Louisville as well, which I've crossed the bridge before for care. So because you don't you you don't work with um Medicare, then there's no really restrictions on where they've come from to see you, is there?

SPEAKER_02 6:57

No, so it's it does matter where you're licensed, and so I am licensed in both states, Indiana and Kentucky. Um, and and with that, it doesn't matter I can treat them through telemedicine or in person, um, that sort of thing. But what I can say is that when it comes to Medicare, Medicaid, it does matter from a provider standpoint, you just change your documentation to say you're just an ordering and rendering provider. So on the back end, we just have to do things. So we're savvy with the government.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, you always gotta play that. Like you feel like you're playing a shell game. Yeah. But you're being honest with what you're doing, but you just feel like you gotta like kind of tap dance. Um, so the problem with seven to ten minute patient visits and feeling rushed. Um I think everybody kind of knows that I I'll I'll say I'll share my experience, and I've said this with you uh personally, is that I went in to see someone, it was my physical. I never got like a physical, physical. I got like, you alright? Like, yeah, uh, yeah, I guess. And like, all right. I was like, what just happened? Um, but if I was to bring up anything, I was told at the front desk where you actually do your copay, oh, whatever you bring up is extra. So I'm like, you know, your first reaction was like, no, you can't ask that. Uh and so immediately I was hit with, well, crap, I don't know what's gonna come out if what should come out of my mouth and how much it's gonna cost now.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah, so you're already immediately thinking I need to watch my mouth because financially there's another piece of the puzzle. If I bring up one problem, two problems. I actually just got an email from my gynecologist when I went for my annual, and it even said in the email, if you bring up a problem during your visit, your visit will go up as far as you know the cost. So I I feel like immediately telling patients, like, yes, you're being transparent's gonna go up. Well, can you at least tell me is it gonna be 10 bucks per problem? What's it gonna be?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Like the complexity of the case and the billing, and that's a whole nother soapbox to get on as far as the incentivized-based revenue and and payment they pay out to providers and and systems. But it's you should be able to go to your physician, your provider, and talk about all of the things that are bothering you.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Yeah, yeah. You should be able to freely just uh bring it up, and then of course, there's a decision later whether or not if you want them to provide you care for those things. Um, but I went in for, like I said, a physical. I mean, they listened to my heart and lungs, but that was it.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I mean Yeah, and I mean if we're talking about an annual physical, I mean, that's a lot that's left out to if they didn't check it. I mean, you should be feeling your lymph nodes, just doing a general skin check, your eyes, your ears, all of the things. And I mean, I'm being honest, half the time when I see if I go in and somebody listens to me, I think they're doing a very poor job. Because if you spend two seconds with your stethoscope on a chest, you're n there's no way you're listening to the heart well enough. And that's just one example from a provider standpoint.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Really?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

So there's a lot of problems. And um coming from that system, which is why I open the direct primary care, there's no way you can provide quality care in five to seven minutes, which on average is what providers are getting with patients.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah, yeah. And you have plenty of openings still right now, so um, you know, you're kind of in a it's a very scalable business, and it's also very like I think other nurses are probably feeling what you're feeling, and like, yeah, I that have a passion to actually help people, they converting over.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Yeah, I mean the burnout is real. I just had another provider colleague reach out to me, um, kind of just talking through some options because he's already burnt out again from another position. It's hard to keep staff and then you know, all the responsibility falls back on the provider ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Yeah. Now I did have a note about removing middlemen, and of course, you know, we're talking about surprise bills or blind billing. That's what I mean by that. Um, you you talked about removing middlemen. What are some of the middlemen that you remove?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

So I'm talking about insurance companies. I don't do any billing for insurance companies through my office, so I don't have to worry about third-party administrative fees. Um, I'm not doing prior authorizations. If um, you know, I'm direct contracting with for lab services, imaging services, we're able to offer a self-pay price for patients for MRIs, CAT scans. So with that being said, we don't have to do a prior authorization. We can go directly to an imaging that's best for that patient. If a patient has a torn rotator cuff, it's pretty evident. Why would you send them to six weeks of six weeks of PT to potentially cause more harm when you know that there's an issue? We need an MRI now so we can intervene and get them to orthopedic. It's just that's just one example of how care is through insurance. They force your hand to do certain steps, but meanwhile, you're suffering and the condition could be worsening, in fact.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Yeah. Now, how do you tie that into like the wellness part? Because it's elite primary care and wellness clinic. How does the wellness fit?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

So when it comes to the wellness piece, because I'm able to spend so much more time with patients and we don't have to worry about any admin burden, I can focus on making those visits longer because the insurance company's not giving me a payout. My clients pay me directly. So that's why that membership is so valuable. They're paying for the access and the time. We can spend 60 minutes together on those annuals and really focus on all the preventative care and maintenance they should be getting through the year. Because I'm gonna be honest, when I worked in traditional practice, you can't do an annual wellness in five minutes. There's no way you're hitting on every chronic disease and every preventative.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

It's a lot of check boxes I've noticed on the forms. They keep getting longer and longer. Um I think that they're probably hitting because of the billing issue, it's like it's kind of like my industry. It's like, okay, you're an advertiser. It's a brand agency, you're an advertiser. Yeah, advertising is like the big umbrella. Everybody's an advertiser. Um, but yeah, what do you want me to do? And people always find out, oh, I didn't know you did that too. That's always a common thing. Like somebody was just like, oh, I didn't know you made websites. Yeah. Do I talk about it a lot? No, because I'm not excited about them. They're a pain in the ass to do.

unknown 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

The necessary. But once you get them done, it's what goes on there images and words. That's what's going on there. People it what you want people to read, what you want them to look at, or if it's video, watch. And so then they find out, oh, I didn't know you did videos. Oh, I didn't know you'd made images. You know, it just kind of cascades off. Yeah, so now the cost goes up, and and I feel like they're kind of in that conundrum where they know it could go up. You've got a lot, not only is there like the blind billing, but you have like you don't know the person, you know, everybody's different, so you don't know what conditions you could c uncover. So it's these they I can see where they have kind of a problem that's coming up where you go to the doctor. So I would think, wouldn't labs reveal a lot anyway, to kind of be a buffer for that where you could look at the lab's report and be like, okay, I got a concern about white cell count something, something you might have. Basically, you might have cancer, but I don't want to scare the crap out of you, so we're gonna do some more tests, and then the costs go up and they tell you how much.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

That yeah, I mean, those can be on reflexes. Um, that's where we do a lab panel, and if something comes back wrong or out of range, it'll reflex to a whole nother panel, which in that if it reflexes, then your cost is gonna go up.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Um, but yeah, so I mean, you can look at general labs, but I'll be honest, in a traditional practice setting, a lot of providers are doing very minimal basic labs. Um, and I would say I practice more integratively. So I'm looking at the things that are, you know, really important. We're looking at vitamin mineral deficiencies and things anyway. So usually on a basic lab panel, it's not giving me a whole lot of information. It's gonna give you a direction to go in, perhaps, but we probably need to do more.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah. Do you work with a lot of uh what's the typical age group that you work with?

SPEAKER_02 14:38

You know, it's interesting. Um, I do have a lot of perimenopausal women, but I also have a lot of um men, I would say 45 to 60. And then now I'm getting a lot of younger people um where they may have fallen off of their parents' insurance, but I've also been getting a lot of 20 and 21-year-olds. So I've just kind of I guess it's all over the place, but I'm getting a lot more young people, and these these young people that are coming in are much more cognizant of their health and wellness and they're wanting to be preventative. So it's like a different approach in that regard.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Um, and I think that generation is going to help change the way that we approach healthcare. And I'm excited about that because they are focused on how can I be well now and in the future, not treat me for what's going on now.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah. I think the uh there's been a lot with their generation. I was talking with Leah because Leah's uh Leah's our marketing director. She's 21. Yeah, she's 21. She'll probably correct me if she were here. She'll eventually she'll make an appearance in the studio. She's on vacation with her family this week. Um, anyway, so she was like, Yeah, and she kind of said, My, I know a lot of people what they think about my generation. She kind of made that comment like that, like, yeah, there's a negative connotation, but for them, it's more like the fiscal responsibility versus what we saw with millennials, which is your generation. There's that, there's a little bit of a difference in that in in what my generation viewed those two and how we view them. I mean, fiscally, it you know, you go like it's not wrong. $28 for, you know, some latte, whatever, and you're one quarter there for your monthly medical treatment, right? You know, I mean, it's not a whole lot. So a hundred bucks, you know, 100 was 110 a month.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Correct. Yeah, 110 flat fee for a one month. Um, and there's no added fees, there's no copies per visit, it just is what it is. It's that simple.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah. So uh I I see people all the time and and uh I understand struggling when you're struggling to make money, what what that is, because in business, a lot of businesses want want us to help them, and I can't because 200 to 500 bucks ain't gonna go anywhere. I mean, I have uh the Google is raising their cost and making changes to their search engine, and honestly, it's gonna be pretty shocking to a lot of people if they are true to their word. Um, but uh, you know, the 500, it's not even an entry to to market your business. So it's like, well, you know, I think anything less than a thousand dollars if you're struggling with, you're just gonna struggle with everything. It doesn't matter what it is.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

No, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah. Uh so but this seems like this is the one thing that you shouldn't it should be at the top of the list of all the other things.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

No, and I agree because I'm trying to, you know, teach people about health and wellness and treating as an asset. You know, we talk about retirement funds. Well, if you're investing in your retirement fund, why are you not investing in your health and treating as an asset? Because if you want to retire, well, don't you run want to retire in a healthy capacity where you're able-bodied and you can do the things you want to do? So that's kind of like the way I think about it.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Yeah, and you could always like if you have a wealth advisor and they're investing in the market with actively not not some kind of mutual fund, but um but actively investing in specific sides and stocks, it's all complicated beyond what I know what I said there. I know that you can pull a dividend out and out of that your wealth advisor can work with you to help you pay for this service easily and do that on a month-to-month basis. So it's not like I gotta go out and grind for that excuse me, a hundred dollars. I I can just pull a dividend and give it to you and pay you for the services that I need for healthcare.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Oh, that's I mean, I didn't even know that, but that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, you have your IRA, but then you have a different kind of um investment that you make. It's on a different branch and the two work together. You do pay capital gains on the other one because the IRA is like, you know, tax free tax, but the other one you're gonna pay capital gains on because if the stock market does well, your portfolio does well. Like, again, it's not a mutual fund, so you're not buying, it's on a 401k and you're not buying into like um a particular like stock. Like I'm in oil, I'm in um microchips, call them microcomputers, it's really funny. Um lately I've been into a few other kind of minerals and things like that, and then into healthcare as well. I've been putting me into that. So it's all these sides and puts, and so um I'll watching for this SpaceX IPO, obviously, but I think I'm not that big of a player. I'm like a like you can do a side of like 500, and then three days later, as the mark if the market goes up or down percentage, you can sell it to a buyer, and then you can make, you know, seven, eight hundred bucks. But if you do a lot of that every week, every day Oh, that's where that capital gains from. That's where it comes from. Yeah. So at the end of the day, I mean you could have a capital gains where you owe the government three thousand dollars or four thousand dollars, but you made seventeen. So that's sort of how the math works on that. And but out of that is how you can pull if if you have a really healthy account, you have it has to grow to a certain extent to make sense. Again, it's where wealth advisors come in and understand this stuff better, but it's like you know, you can pull money out month to month. It's it's again, it's it's considered income, so that it is taxable to the you to the person because it's not an IRA. You're withdrawing, you're not putting in, but you know, you can always uh obfuscate that by putting in a I think up to seven thousand dollars. You can do that.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

So that way you're like, oh, okay, you're making a capital fund injection or investment, you know. Um a lot of S-Corp companies, it's how they work their pass-throughs on that. So it's like you have this money in the bank account, it's say let's say you started the business with ten grand, it's an S-Corp, and so that ten grand can go into the next year and it's not taxable, it's passed through. Okay. So even if you don't make or make less than ten grand for the next time, I mean whatever that capital is, as long as you're passing it through and you're not and you pay yourself as a salary, so then that's where your income tax comes out. You're paid your yourself as an employee, it's a W-2.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

So Yeah, that's why I have an accountant that somebody buys me.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah, I have I I know all I've learned all the tricks over several years, and yeah, I used to have a business partner, and uh I think at one time I had up to like five employees and or five or six, and um so yeah, it was uh get a payroll company at that point. You don't you don't manage payroll with QuickBooks. I don't recommend it. I recommend get a payroll company. Um because if you have a CPA and a bookkeeper and a payroll company, those are the three things that'll keep you I think pretty well in good shape. Because they have all the records, so if an audit happens or whatever, it's that's right there. Yeah, you can go tell them to go talk to talk to those folks, you know, start with CPA and then he'll talk to the bookkeeper, and then the CPA will call payroll company and vice versa. So, you know, because payroll company would always send out the W-2s, and I would have the CPA send out the 1099s.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

I got it to come in.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Yeah, you don't mess with the money in your business, you got time to grow the business. That's really their thing. I mean, there's so much admin stuff, and you and to kind of dovetail back what you were talking about, because you don't have all this admin stuff you got to do, you can put more time into care for your patients, you can put more time into the business. That's kind of why. I always preach like stuff like this with finances because it's like money and marketing are the two big time eaters that a business owner will have put on them that will just take away their ability to scale the business and actually provide a good service.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Yeah, I agree. And um I would say over the last year, that's been, you know, I've had a lot of learning opportunities. I didn't know anything about running a business. I just know how to care for patients. So that was a huge learning curve. And I have started to delegate and, you know, do all that. So people that I've hired to help take those things on, like Nerdbrand, which has been amazing. Thank you. Um yeah. So there's a lot of things that have kind of segued into allowing me the space to create a best a better patient experience, including the time that I'm able to care for them and the time spent addressing their needs. It is very time consuming when you're talking about marketing and finances and taxes and all of this. So being able to learn how to operate the the business functionally and how to delegate those things.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Um and now I'm in a place where pretty much I'm just primarily focused on patient care, which is amazing. And then the other side of that too is expanding in a way of how am I educating the people around me in my community about what direct primary care is and what are the alternative options to health insurance or your health care.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh that's that's the thing. There's always like people just don't know what the questions are, and so that's why they don't ask. And there and no one really kind of starts a conversation with, I don't know crap, can you tell me stuff? You know, no one's gonna admit that. And it's quite understandable. Um, so I guess uh see, you have defined primary care in the model. I mean, it's straight up like a Netflix model, um, month to month. Now, you do have a preference that people need to like have some kind of commitment level. It's not like you can turn it on and turn it off month to month. You have to stay with it for a bit, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, so our our contract is a minimum of three months, but then we just ask for a 30-day cancellation. I'll be honest, I'm really pleased with our retention rate because I find that people really see the value in the care that they're receiving and they stay on. Um and people who do cancel, you know, maybe they've been with us for six to twelve months and they've received the care that they the value that they needed from the care they've received. And um, some people come back to practice when an issue comes up. But ideally, we're having people stay on at the practice because, again, we're focused on prevention and wellness, not just your acute sick needs or chronic disease. Um, and there's so much research out there to support how much better chronic disease is managed through direct primary care because of the personalized attention that you're getting. And it's much more proactive. People that have unmanaged high blood pressure or diabetes, I'm not waiting three to six months for them to come back to the office. If you're not well managed, you're gonna be sending me your blood pressures at the end of every week because I'm gonna be like, hey, we're gonna make adjustments until we get this button down. Same thing with blood sugars. So we have that capacity in our wheelhouse to make sure you're managed much quicker, much safer, and get you to where you need to be.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Oh God, if I become a patient of yours, you're gonna yell at me so much.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Yeah, that's part of it too. You know, I'm holding you accountable until someone tells me to buzz off, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

But I put the Mountain Dew down off the table and onto the floor.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

That was just an example.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Um, how do you help businesses? Because I don't think business owners realize that this is like I back in the day when I worked in manufacturing, I mean they would have Aflac come in before they started with the duck thing and you know, and I don't think they realize this is like a good add-on to what they already have. But how does that work?

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah, so I work with several businesses in our community um and in Louisville, but what that looks like is there's a few options. I work with several independent insurance brokers who are very well-bersed in the alternative benefits. So rather than, you know, traditional United Anthem, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, large plans, they can take a look and meet with this insurance broker who has the capacity to offer direct cash pay pricing for services and give them a wraparound with direct primary care. So let's just say, for example, that um cost per employee per month, let's say it's $1,200. Oftentimes we're seeing a huge reduction to six to eight hundred dollars per employee per month. And that's with full benefits plus direct primary care.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Yes. So it's an immediate around 40% at least average reduction. And we're talking about just the financial piece, not to mention the increase in retention, the added benefits that you can say, you should be proud to work here. I care about my employees. This is what I'm offering you because I care about your health and well-being. Um, you know, and we because we can manage sickness much sooner. Anyone that's established can get in the same day, next day. So when we talk about employers and their their sick leave, you know, they can call the clinic that day and come into clinic and we can address whatever it is that's bothering them that day. Or if they get injured at work, they don't need to necessarily go to a work comp site, they can come here for evaluation and then we can help direct them.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, that's a that's a thing I wasn't thinking about is like if you own a business and you have employees, every state is different. But they're all pretty much like if you have one employee, you have to have workers comp. That's a rule. Um, and I think a lot of business owners don't realize that that are starting out. If you have five employees, oh, I don't need workers comp. No, you do. You have number one, number one employee, you should have workers comp. It's about 700 a year, I think, depending on where you're at, where you live, the in the business that you have. So it's interesting because you said workers comp site and and and um how that relates to what you do. I'm wondering if there's an impact on that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

And I mean, I can speak for that because this also, if they can be addressed in the direct primary care setting in my clinic and I can help them, that immediately cuts costs of urgent care visits, emergency room visit claims, um, or getting rather than them going to an urgent care and getting treatment and getting a bill for that through work comp, they're coming to the clinic first. Because if I can manage them in-house, that's a zero dollar bill.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Because they're already a member of the clinic.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Um, and that's just one option with this wraparound. Some businesses will choose just to add me as an add-on service as an added benefit for their team. Um, and so what that looks like is you know, that's they may pay for all their employees to have my service. They just come in and establish care and I'm their primary care. They they have my direct number, so they get to access me 247-365.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah, yeah. And and when I say it's $700 a year, I meant like if you have like maybe one employee and you don't it's not an outside job. It's a new business. Like there's there's thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars that employers spend on workers comp because of you know, if you got 20, 40 staff, I mean, it's a lot of money. So yeah, the costs that you save them on that front and everywhere else, it's worth it because at the end of the day it will tally up. So uh yeah, I love that. Um when I met you uh on a personal note, you so I met Jessica at a health kind of at a health fair. She was standing in a tent, kind of not I want to say I don't want to say annoyed, but you were definitely like, when is this over? Look.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

That's very fair. Um my booth location. Uh that was the first one I did. And my booth location was not where it was supposed to be. Um, turns out it was it was alright, but I was by the llamas and the dogs.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yeah, llamas. Yeah, that's uh I remember that. And I was like, okay, that's the strangest thing I've ever seen. But yeah, and then you were like two booths down from my um psychic, I think.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Uh I remember that. Um, so anyways, yeah, I went there because uh I knew somebody that was running it, and I was like, all right, I'll go check it out. I mean, it's not that far from my house. And um I remember somebody was telling me a while back, it's like, hey man, there's this nurse practitioner you should meet. Um, because she's trying to do this, this, and that. And and I was like, okay. And then as soon as I met you, and you said you probably remember this. As soon as you said direct primary care and you started doing like I lit up because I was like, I know what this is.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Yeah, no, I remember our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, it's like, I know what this is. This has finally reached level.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Oh my god. Because I was excited you knew about it, because it's like, you know, it's a never-ending battle. It's uh it's been around for so long, but a lot of people just still don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah, and and that's why I always describe it as the Netflix for healthcare. I mean, because it's like it it's so simple. It is a very simple way of getting care. Because, you know, I think a lot of times, like I I won't say where I go, but I see a nurse practitioner now, but she's within the system, and I know she knows she can't do a lot. She's being ready to retire anyways. So whenever she retires, I'm like, okay, I gotta make a change and fig figure something out, and you're you're the figuring out. So it's like, you know, it it it impacts everybody at different times and different ages. Um, but it to your point, it seems like now the younger people are starting to realize like this exists too. So I'm glad that they're discovering it. Yeah. Um, because it really is advantageous. But also, too, you uh you are a bit of a dork. Um, and that's a good thing. Um a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You know, uh we we put you on TikTok and you got found.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

You know, Danielle helps uh me be a little goofy sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Yeah. Uh that wasn't really like I told Danielle I was like, hey, plan a strategy here. Just let's just see what happens, you know, on that channel. Because I mean, out of the client, I mean we've done uh we've done t ads on TikTok before. Um they're not too it's not terrible um on the return. You'll spend very little money to do it. Um I've had I've actually had our ad uh guy Charles look at it. Um we're not really convinced it's a good spend right now, uh, because we're seeing such a good return. It's very surprising that Google does such a good job uh in in that regard. But I do think that education content is gonna be really, really big coming from coming up for you. So I know that everybody's gonna be excited to hear from you because you have a vast wealth of knowledge in this arena. Um and and I kind of relate to that because we get asked a question, and I think that you like having questions asked.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yes, because uh sometimes then I just talk, I really get on tangents and you never know where I'm gonna end up.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh you're also partnered with several businesses. Uh you're able to go in, like you're with a gym, I guess more than one. Um we'll give them a shout out, Jeff City Mix.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Yes, located in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Yeah, and then Full Moon Martial Arts, which is in New Albany, Indiana.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah, yeah. So I've not been to Jeff City Mix. Um, is that a place I should I should probably visit that, I guess. I don't get over to Jeffersonville much.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah, so Alex and Michelle Diaz are the owners, and so what they do is they serve Herbalife products, but they also offer evil body scanning technology. And so they really work.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Did you say evil? Evil evolt. Oh, okay. Evilt. I was like evil body scanning? What's going on? Did we just what?

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Evilt. Uh so it's a body composition scale. So you can you can get on there, do the full composition. It really looks at skeletal mass, muscle mass, and fat mass. So it gives you an actual much better picture than your BMI. But they're really focused on health and wellness, and so they will help people build a uh fitness plan, a nutrition plan. They do community workouts. I just really love that how mission-driven they are and how they show up in our community. Um and then Full Moon Martial Arts, I misspoke. The gym's actually located in Clarksville. It's in the old planet fitness in in Clarksville.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Yes. Uh yeah, that that one's a hard one to find.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

It was. It was not well signed.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

But um Yeah, I think they gotta get their signage up uh to help with that. Um, because it's like over by the Wat Watsons.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

I think I think so. But it yeah, that place is huge and um it's a phenomenal partnership. I really love Chuck, um, Charles, the gym owner.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

But yeah, yeah. I I met him when I uh I didn't know me or anything, but I went in and I was looking for you and I said, Oh, I'm a friend of that. And you know, he was like, Oh yeah, she's back over that way. And I was like, Oh, okay. Um, I thought he was gonna throw me out because I was walking in with cameras or cameras, and I was like, like, you never know how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

No, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Um, but uh yeah, I didn't know that he had a uh business fair there, so it seems like a lot of nice people were there. Um and it went and it went well. So um are you a membership? Are you well, you don't need to say if you remember that.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Oh, no, not yet, but I have contemplated taking some of their self-defense classes. They offer a lot. Um, they train, they do all kinds of martial arts training across the board. Um, but yeah, they offer self-defense classes, and I have considered taking a few of them.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah, so don't stalk her or she'll put you down on the ground. So are you excited about uh and it's just just a little tangent for us, you know, like because we know you're a nerd with regards to healthcare and all of this stuff. What what other thing kind of drives you? I've asked you this before, like um other hobbies, interests that you know, like you can look around the studio here and kind of see, like, okay, Jason's got a thing for DC Comics and Transformers. Um what is it for you that um it is nostalgic or is something that you like to keep track of or keep up with?

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Oh, that's a hard question. I'm not sure how to answer that uh as far as keeping up with one I guess something that I find that brings me peace and like connectedness is being out in nature. So I really love to be outside. I actually love to go camping, um, hiking, and just enjoying the outdoors.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

They just opened up that um water path the pathway that goes from Jeffersonville to New Albany was along the river. It was in the news.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

I have not walked it yet.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

I've been running down the bridge, but I've not been on the walking path.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah. Uh one of the ladies from um Upton came out and talked about it, uh, because they got a deck that kind of looks over it. So um I've not been to that restaurant in a while either.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Oh, Upland Brewing Company?

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Uh yeah, yeah, that's it. Upland. Yeah, I've not been there in a while. Um yeah, they I think maybe two, three years ago I was there. So I remember what it looked like before the path. So I was like, yeah, much better. I'd like for them to do something about the debris, but that's it's a river, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

So Yeah, I'd I would agree. There's not much you can do.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Yeah, that's the only thing about it. You're just like, yeah, but then you got like a dead tree floating up to it, and you're just like, it's pretty bricks on the path, but then there's the dead tree. It's like, all right, whatever. Um, but you know, and then they have an origin park third building. Um that's kind of crossing Clarksville, New Albany, I think. And so uh, you know, have you been over there or seen anything over there?

SPEAKER_02 36:59

No, but I am noticing that I feel like they're investing a lot in the community to create more spaces like that. So that's really nice to see and encouraging people to be outside and and be active.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Yeah, I would like for um this side of the river, somebody do something and and about the libraries.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Um, I would agree.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Yeah. Uh that's one thing Louisville does right, I think. Um my mom always wants to go and get books there to buy books, you know, there'd be like five, seven dollar books. So but driving all the way down to Shively or Valley Station Library is like I don't like doing that. Don't I don't like going anywhere near Dixie Highway. Um, but anyway, it's like over here went to the three of them. And and I was just like, hey, this can't be. So, anyways, anybody out there listening, if you're interested in that, yeah, I'd I'd love to fight figure out a way that we can get our libraries to look as nice or as be as organized as Louisville. So um, but that's the one thing about m I've been in Indiana for about twelve years, and I'm like, oh, they've not done anything about it since That's one thing. Yeah, that's one thing. Because shopping is not exactly as important. I notice a lot of people are touching grass more, they're going outside more. Yosemite National Park, did you see that story where everybody was like it overwhelmed them when they got rid of yeah, yeah, they got rid of reservations and so they got overwhelmed, and um right now at at some beach in California, they've got like a thousand people today there. Uh they got 20 foot swells, and so they're out surfing, and there's just all kinds of people out just watching other people surf. So culture's changing a bit.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yeah, and I I think that's a good thing. You know, I think there's a lot of people that are stuck on their, you know, electronic devices, and we don't we forget to look up and check the world out.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Yeah, I spend a lot of time on X just kind of scrolling. Um and it is it is an absolute, I don't want to say dumpster fire. Um, I would probably be Reddit. But at the end of the day, it's it's it's definitely interesting how um when you get information for either of us in our fields, like it's so fast to go there and find it now. I don't know if you've used it or explored it. Um there is like an explore tab, so you can actually just kind of go through and search. So it's almost like I'm starting to see where it's sort of starting to try to become more or less the internet.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

X.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

I'll be honest, I'm not even on there.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Yeah. Um, well, you know, it's something that it's it's probably worth getting on there. Um I I don't really have I I used to have uh, so for Nerdbrand, we have a lot of followers, but over the years, I mean, we've not really kept up. So this show will go out over that. Um so people from there may come in and say, like, yeah, join the party at X, it's fun, you know, who knows what'll happen. Uh but I go through the explore tab and you kind of find like just different topics, and then I started noticing that it's starting to look a lot like what you know the internet was in its infancy.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

So, yeah, you know, you're still having keywords, you're still looking for stuff. I mean, you're literally searching, searching that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, okay, well, now you have Grok, which is their AI. So what does that pull from? And you know, if you pay for a subscription to it, it's like now the whole experience changes. But uh at the end of the day, it's still free for now, but eventually I think it's gonna get locked down completely.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Okay. But you do bring up a good point, you know, with access to information at your fingertips, that translates into healthcare pretty well because I have that's another thing that's a I feel like a problem with providers, is that you know, I think patients have this misconception that they cannot ask questions. And when they come in with all this information, you know, they joke around like, oh, Dr. Google says, well, okay, let's explore the information that you've brought to me. I can tell you whether it's correct, incorrect. I like that about you that you do. My advice is because that is one thing I tell all my patients, I do not have an ego. There is not room for an ego in your health, you know, and I feel like that it's impossible for everyone to know everything. And if I said that I did, I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

So what I can do though is I can point you in the right direction. I can find a resource to help us, you know, and I can reach out to colleagues, we can do consults, but it's impossible to know everything. So I encourage my patients to ask questions because what that does is one, it creates rapport and trust, and two, it gives them a safe space to feel like they really can share all the information because what happens is when they don't share all the information, how can I know you 100% and really take care of you?

SPEAKER_00 41:27

Yeah. Oh, that's true. Um, you have to be open and honest, you have to be willing to share and talk.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Yeah. And that's that is hard to do, uh, especially for dudes.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Well, I mean, yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

You know, we're a little we have a a worse time with that, I think, uh, especially the older we get. Uh so but yeah. Anyways, tell everybody where they can find you online.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

So we are at Elite Primary Care and Wellness Clinic dot com. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, of course.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Awesome. And uh you guys like this episode, be sure to share it. Uh, go to like, subscribe, find your favorite podcast app, and you can download it. And uh you can find us at nerdbrandagency.com. If you like the show, you can go to nerdbrandpodcast.com or you can go to nerdbrandagency.com slash podcast. You pick, it's up to you. It's fun, choices. So with that said, appreciate you being on the show. And to everybody out there, remember keep your nerd brand strong.