The Hidden Rule That Changed American Healthcare

Most people believe hospitals exist to serve patients first.

But there’s a rule buried inside the healthcare system that most people have never heard about… and it changed everything.

Years ago, doctors were quietly blocked from owning new hospitals. Almost no one talks about it. Yet that one move reshaped who controls healthcare in this country.

In this episode, I dig into what really happened, why physician-led hospitals became such a threat, and how some doctors are finding a different path forward.

Because when doctors control the care… something very different starts to happen.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why physicians were suddenly blocked from building new hospitals
• The surprising reason physician-owned hospitals perform differently
• The quiet workaround some doctors are using to build a new kind of healthcare system

Learn more about Dr. Lucas Myers:

• http://www.selkirkcenter.com/
• on X: @DrLGarl
• Physician-Led Healthcare for America: Physiciansled.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

16 years ago this month, Congress did a shameful act that very few people know about. What they did was they put Act 6 uh Section 6001 into the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare Act. And most people don't know what this is. This is an act that says physicians can't own hospitals. And it went even beyond that. There were 265 physician-owned hospitals at that time. And it froze them in place. They could add in more beds, they could add in more treatment rooms, just left them there. Everybody else in the country can own a hospital. A lawyer, a banker, a felon, a rodeo clown. I couldn't find any other person that can't own a hospital except the person that you want to own a hospital, physicians who have trained their whole life to take care of patients, but we can't do that. And the reason we can't do that is you can't accept Medicare and Medicaid if you're physician under that Act. And about 98% of hospitals received 50% of their revenue from Medicare or Medicaid. So effectively, it's just physicians out of this. And what's happened since then is that now physician-owned hospitals are there, but they can't open any new ones. But the ones that are there are doing extremely well. They provide higher quality care at a lower price than traditional hospitals. And this is why that ban was in place, because traditional hospitals said we can't outcompete physician-owned hospitals. So they decided what we can do. We can raise a lot of money, go to Congress, and have them ban physicians. But the good news is I have a great guest today who is going to show you his workaround for that problem. His name is Dr. Lucas Myers. He is a fellow OBGYN. He's also been in the military like I have, and he also is a huge advocate of physician-led healthcare in America, just like myself. This podcast is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. You should always take the advice of a physician for your issues. Thank you so much for being here today, Lucas. Great to see you.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

The first question I have is, which everybody asks you why did you want to do this? You're going to open up a hospital and it's also going to provide the full suite of obstetric services. And about 40% of obstetric services are traditionally covered by Medicaid. So this is a very innovative solution you're coming up with. So what was the reason you decided to do this?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Well, it's a great question. Before medicine, as you said, I was in the military. I was in uh peer rescue in the military. And the main theme of peer rescue is that others may live. And that that mindset brought me into medicine. And along my way in residency, I was very fortunate enough to meet people that and be around physician-led hospitals, physician-owned hospitals in Oklahoma. And I realized how efficient that was and how much lower prices and price transparency. I was fortunate enough to know people in the area that were involved with show me how much the prices change for each system in the same geographic region, significant price differences for the same thing. And I shortly after uh residency, I went to private practice, and it was very clear from early on that private practice in this model is not sustainable. And I got to think about my longevity career, and I like to have the autonomy and eliminate other people between myself and the physician for quality care. So that why that's I really wanted to be in private practice. And I rejected the idea of employment because employment I feel like it would have more incentive to drive in that in that bond. And with that, I I was left with a choice. And I realized in my past there's this hospital I've been with, there's these you know, price transparency. And I had this feeling that I, you know, I'm I think I need to build a hospital because in obstetrics you want to capture vertical integration, is and otherwise it's gonna be at least one person driving in that wedge between yourself and the patient. And doctors need to design the entire health with involved with healthcare system to make sure we maximize autonomy and maximize the patient's autonomy as well. And so that's the only answer, and and that's the answer that I feel that we need to go forward. So that's kind of in that show what we started. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

No, that's a great. I mean, physician autonomy is so important. And it really comes down to a lot of people would say, well, physicians are trying to be greedy. No, what we're trying to do is focus the system on the patient. And if we have autonomy, we can do that. When we don't have autonomy, the other option is what we have today corporate practice of medicine. And now you have layers and layers of layers between us and the patients. And the patients hate that and they don't understand what's going on. But there's really no other option. It's either we're leading it or someone else is leading it, and they're leading it from financial metrics. They're looking at how can we get as much money out of the system from each patient as possible? Not how can we make them be a healthier patient. And, you know, that and I love your focus on that. And could you walk us through how did you start the process? What was the first steps and how did that work out for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yes, it was it was overwhelming at first. You know, how do you build this massive undertaking? Um, and just knowing uh I knew uh Stacy at PHA. She uh she's uh physician with healthcare for America. I researched these lobbying groups, and there's not very many lobbying groups as pro physician. And I found the PHA and I contacted them and I, you know, I said, Stacy, I want to build a hospital. I want to build it in North Idaho. Uh and Stacy said, Okay, great. I mean, I know the I know let me just transfer you the person, the immediate number of the first person that I know, the best person I know is Heath Wieleman. And Heath, uh, I got talked to Heath, I said, Hey Heath, I uh I want to build a hospital in North Idaho. It's a no certificate of need state compared to Washington, which is a certificate need state. And you know, there's a there's a lot of reasons why this hospital began in North Idaho. Um and He said, Absolutely. Uh and shortly after that, it just it snowballed into meeting my developer Todd Everett, and he's he's a women healthcare focused developer all around the country. And it was and us as a team began making this plan. It's it's been it's been very, very fun so far. You know, there's some stressful times, but it's been exceedingly fun. And it's it makes you um really want to practice medicine more and more and just be very passionate about it because you're you have the you have the devices to make sure the patients get the care they need.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

You're putting the focus in the right place. And I'll just mention for our viewers a certificate of need is a program instituted, and I think it's in about 30 states, that basically says if you want to go ahead and build a hospital, you have to get permission to build a hospital. And oftentimes you have to get permission to build a hospital from the other hospitals already there. So you can imagine they're gonna say, no, you know what, we don't actually want any competition. So we can't build it. So that's what happens. And the people you mentioned, States Monroe is the leader of physician-led healthcare in America, and he is a phenomenal advocate, understands it very well. And I was impressed when I first talked to him, I said, wow, you've got to keep Foyleman. He is the most knowledgeable person about healthcare I've ever seen for hospital finances. He is a phenomenal guy, and he's really aligned with physicians. And one of the things that's important for physicians who want to start anything like an ambulatory surgery center or a hospital is to find finance professionals who are aligned with us because we're not finance people, we're not accountants. So you need to find the people who share our mission. And that definitely is Heath. He's a wonderful person. So I was impressed right away that you you got the right team. That was great. And where are you at right now in the process? And could you tell us about how big the site is and how big the hospital is going to be?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Absolutely. This is this is a hospital, but it's also a medical uh development complex. This is we're having seven buildings on that on the on the property. Um and we we purchased the property, and right now we're we're designing the building and engineering the um the plot of land and subdividing um into seven sections. We're gonna have the wonderful thing about this project is I'm involved in primary care. Primary care is sort of is is a huge need in the area and as everywhere. Yeah, there's gonna be medical office buildings, there's gonna be opportunities from all specialties to come on to this complex and start their own private practice and have a physician-owned hospital anchor.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

I love that. That's great. And how many square feet is the hospital gonna be?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

40,000 square feet right now. It's gonna be one story, 40,000 square feet, six ORs, gonna have um eight labor and delivery rooms, and then uh uh 10 postpartum or uh just uh standard medical uh rooms.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

That's that's great. That's so how many deliveries would you be able to do there in a month on average?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Would you would you have capacity for around 60 or 60, potentially maybe 80? It depends. Some of those rooms uh the uh the postpartum rooms can be flexed into labor rooms if they needed to. But uh particularly we're gonna we're gonna try to do 60. That's the goal.

unknown 10:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

And in you know, north north Idaho is a is a maternal desert. Uh about 2022, there's a hospital in in San Point, Idaho that closed down the labor and delivery unit and it leaves a huge vacuum in the area. So this is a a hospital that needs to be in North Idaho. And uh there's a lot of a lot of places in the country that would like to have this model as well. I think this model will be very, very beneficial across the country.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

I love that you're swimming against the tide because as you said, a lot of hospital systems close obstetric units. That happens all the time, especially these huge nonprofit systems. They close it because they say, you know what, let's get something that's more profitable. And and you're you know, jumping right in there. And I, you know, I love that. It's great for the community. And then what surgery specialties are gonna be at the hospital? Which ones have you reached out to?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Right. We just got to go back on the on the on the profitability side. Sure. Um, yes, the main thing about profitability is in healthcare, as you know, it's the more distance you have from the physician to the patient, the higher prices get, and it doesn't mean better outcomes. So in this case, we're able to make this work because physicians are running it. Um can you repeat your last your second your second question? I I forgot.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Oh, that's okay. Which surgery specialties are you gonna have there? You know, are you gonna have ortho or urology, or which ones are gonna be working at the hospital?

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Always UYN, uh urogyne, and amigs, um, any of any of the subspecialties of GYN, orthopedics, yes, uh urology, yes, uh, ENT, potentially uh pediatric dentistry, um general surgery or colorectal surgery. So array of of different surgical subtypes. And I I want to make sure that you know uh the the everybody listening on here, if whatever specialty you are, just message us and and we can talk uh because I don't want to limit this to a specific service line hospital. I I think there's the the the medicine's at a point now where if you're if you want if you think that physicians should run healthcare, this is your opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I love that message. And it's great to have the MOBs there in medical office buildings because you know if you have an outpatient practice, it's great to be right across from a hospital. That's wonderful. And it's nice to have, yeah, I'm sure a lot of the surgery will be outpatient surgery, which is wonderful as well. So I I I love the whole thing with that. Now, have you broke ground yet, or where are you guys at in terms of the main hospital building?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

We're expected to break ground in June.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

The construction is going to take around 12 to 14 months, and then it'll be operational.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

And what type of thing? Now I know you're not going to be in Medicare or Medicaid, but what other type of regulations do you have to regulatory hoops do you have to jump through with a hospital? I imagine there's a few.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Right. Yeah, there's quite a bit. I mean, there's a state level. There's also we're we're building the hospital to CMS. Uh, because the goal is really to to anticipate taking Medicaid Medicare. Because there are exceptions. And in this, in this case, with the high Medicaid population and obstentrics, I think it's very, very convincing to make the exception for this hospital. We don't need to have the exception.

unknown 13:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Uh, but uh this for the best of Idaho is we have that exemption of that of the CMS um um ACA 6001.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

No, is that exemption because of a high Medicaid population? That's what you're referring to.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Right. The majority of you know uh of abstentics in North Idaho is is uh is state Medicaid.

unknown 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Uh for you know, but but for the business though, aspect we don't need to do that, but we want to do that. And I think it's it's uh it's it's I don't want to exclude care from anyone. And in this case, I think uh everyone wanted one want to deliver here, but I really want to serve them people in North Idaho.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Oh, that's great. And are you gonna have maternal fetal medicine there? Uh high-risk OB doctors.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

We're gonna initially do a consult service uh virtually. I think that's the that's the way to go. Um, it depends if we get a maternal fetal medicine physician wants to join the project. That'd be wonderful. We could we could work with that, and that would be great.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

All you maternal fetal medicine doctors out there, join up a Dr. Lucas Myers. I think that no, I think that would be phenomenal because the interesting thing, I I practiced in the beginning where there wasn't any maternal phenomena in the area I was at. And then I saw over time when they come there, it's amazing how they kind of create a need, if you will. And you know, there's so many more advances with ultrasound, which is good. The bad part is you start finding some unusual findings and you need clarification. And that was a lot of what they were doing, honestly. And you know, something like your model, they could certainly come once a week and do consults and you know, do ultrasound there, and that would work out well, and they wouldn't have to, you know, you get somebody over from Washington. So it uh now is that why you chose Idaho as the need state? Is that the main reason you went that way?

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Well, I grew up in this region, and well, uh in Spokane, we were you know, uh North Idaho and Spokane are very, very close together, maybe 10, 15 miles from the border. And Spokane is the second largest city in Washington. So it because of the constraints of CON, the um the state that put this hospital is on the border of North Idaho. And funny thing was yesterday it was it was uh that the state Washington state's trying to pass a uh income tax for high earners. And so there's with all the taxes, and not to do be political, just how the this overall observation of the area, sure, the the cost of living differences in Washington is really driving a lot of folks to uh the Idaho border. And so this this this area is is seeing a large population growth. Um so this will there's many different factors, but those are the two drivers of why this this model works very well where it's at. It we we got the land for a very reasonable price. Um we're already under budget of what we're doing. Because my my developer is a great developer. He found this piece of property and he negotiates great contracts. And you're right, it's if you don't have a good team that's aligned with the mission, you can be taken advantage of. And that's that's probably my biggest takeaway of building a hospital is finding the right team.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

And what's your approach? How is that gonna differ for delivering obstetric care than what a traditional hospital would do?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

One of the first things a patient will see is price transparency. Before they walk into that door, they're going to know what it costs and what they're gonna do, and that's the major factor that patients make it a bill months from now is it's a huge bill, and they just had a brand new family. That's that's one of the main things. The second is going to be efficiency. You're gonna be you're gonna see this hospital, it's gonna be elevated the birth experience. I'm not sure. I I've I've been to uh some hospitals and and they all are very dissimilar in how the birth experience is. It's the bar is unfortunately low on the quality. I mean, not the kind of uh the elevation of experience is not really there. So this is gonna be an efficient model, an elevated experience. The families are gonna want to be there. We're gonna have great food. Um, we're gonna have excellent service lines. You know, I mean, we're even thinking of the idea of having a massage therapist come in and you know give massages to patients. You know, it's it's gonna be a wonderful thing. It's gonna be cheaper than um than other hospitals, and this is gonna be all around better experience for patients.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

One thing is an OB that I that I've learned, which you know as well, is when you treat obstetric patients well, they really communicate with each other and word gets out. And you know, I I imagine Idaho is probably like where I was practicing Wisconsin, you know, we're kind of a small to medium-sized town. And once you work hard to give great service, word gets out. So I think you're gonna be very successful with that. But I've never heard anybody put great food and a hospital in the same sentence. I think that alone is pretty that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Oh yeah, yeah, wonderful food. You know that I think it's just that it's gonna be a totally different experience. Uh, you know, even in the room, uh, the rooms are gonna have you know amp ambient lighting, circadian rhythm lighting, you know, all those different things. It just it just doesn't exist and it should. It's not it's not very difficult, yeah. Uh, but it's it should exist there. This the birth experience is is one of the most intimate parts of people's lives. And I think we need to highlight that with these with the hospital.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

No, I I agree with that. And you know, you really what you're saying, you're bringing the humanity back to healthcare, which is lost in hospital systems. And you know, this way you're always focused on the patient, keeping that upfront. And you know, it's it, and I'm not saying anything bad about hospital systems, but if they're run by an MBA, you're gonna think like an MBA. That's just the way it's gonna work. And physicians think differently about that. And have you recruited any nurses or talked to any nurses in the area, any of the maternity nurses?

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yes, I have. There's there's a large, there's a there's a large amount of interest. You know, I probably won't be hiring nurses until about six to two months before opening. Sure. But one of the main things in this campus we're going to be having is a child care center. And I think that's so important for young, uh, young nurses or young families to be able to see their kids and you know, and and be it is very easy logistically to have their children around. And I think that's a very important piece of of just being having a young family. This this whole center is revolve around families.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

No, I I think that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

And really, you know, it's funny that maternity centers really, in a lot of ways, fail or succeed by the nursing staff. You know, if you kind of set the tone, say, you know, we we really want, and I and we've both been in multiple nursing units, and some are just so empathetic and supportive of the patients, and the patients feel it. You know, they help them out, they give them great suggestions, they help them with breastfeeding. And, you know, fostering that is so important. You know, you get the right mix of nurses, it really can make it a great center.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Absolutely. But I think you're you hit it hit the nail right on the head. It's it's culture, it's a culture fit. You have to have the people with the same aligned vision, and that's part of the hiring process. And and everyone that we that we put on the Selkirk Center and the Selkirk Development or is going to have very similar line of the culture, and that's gonna be a a huge driver of uh a patients when they feel comfortable, you feel this empathy, as you're saying, and that human touch is there. And I I can see in the future how you know people integrate AI into care and the the complexity of administration as it keeps growing, how that will be as as even larger. larger difference and what people are people need that people need that human connection especially in those intimate moments and and obstetrics it's not only especially with infant moments but there's a lot of other special deeds too and and the Americans are gonna need to have this hospital and the system and around the country it's it's it's it's this one this we need it you just kind of you have that desire to have that human connection and medicine.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

No I I think it's gonna be fantastic and I think this is going to be kind of the epicenter of an earthquake that's gonna really change healthcare in America because once word gets out you can have a physician-owned hospital do great obstetric care everybody's gonna say let's replicate this model elsewhere and I think it's gonna be a a threat to the traditional hospitals and it was interesting when the traditional hospital said we can't outcompete the physician four percent of the hospitals in America were physician owned and I read that this morning and I realized four percent of the market share was where Apple computer was at its idea. And Microsoft was so worried they're going to go out of business they threw them a lifeline because they thought the FTC would be upset with them for controlling the market. So it's kind of ironic that you know the legislatures took the opposite pathway with that. But no I think that is great. How was your your you're married, you have children how is your family doing with this whole exciting journey?

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yeah it's a funny story of my I mean my wife and I are helped found or founded this hospital and it's one of the main things when I started this is just to make sure my wife is on board with this and she's it it's she might tell the story but one day but she'll um I I had this this idea of fostering and talking to Heath um about building this hospital and you know I was just one day after work and uh private practice you know I said I turned her and I said I'm gonna start a hospital um and she was I was nuts you know it's uh she said well I guess you know she's and it's starting to happen the the thing my my wife is really good at she's really good at counterbalancing or kind of help fostering a uh I'm an idea soundboard and she's has wonderful ideas and that was it's actually her idea uh with the child care center and um you know it's been a wonderful wonderful thing for my family and I think it's it's the adventure it's it's it's starting to is help strive passion and we're you know we we we've bonded pretty closely even more from this having this project with us that we've helped creating that's great no it's so important to have your family on board with that so that is great and your wife's in healthcare as well so she understands that and yes yeah she's a dentist and I I have two children seven and eight uh little girls um you know that that's probably one of the challenging things is is you're working and you're you're building this thing and you only have so much hours in a day so I I try to maximize my time with them when I can you know put down social media and and that and so forth. But it's but that's been probably one of the largest personal challenges of of of starting this hospital is this my family time.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

What has been the most challenging part of this whole process and something that you didn't really anticipate?

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Well it's that's a good question. There's particularly with business the people you do business with um there's been an a couple instances already where people didn't have the projects uh in mind or the best intentions in mind when doing business with us uh and again I want to reiterate why it's really good to have a good team because uh you know uh my developer and Heath were able to sniff that out of uh a couple people and avoid a you know large roadblock um because of that but it's it's quite surprising um the uh these and I'm not saying everyone's but there's some individuals are not artists they look they appear that way they feel very very helpful but um often you have to sniff out and be very cautious um when dealing with large business deals with people and this is a new area for you have you ever developed anything in the past done any real estate projects uh nothing I've done no real estate projects in the past uh it it's just a totally foreign world but you know physicians are very very smart where um physicians they've been in school for a long time they know how to study and so that's one thing that I picked those tools and say okay here's something that I can learn how to do as well and so learning finance books real estate management um and just kind of going over this this financial part of the of the business um and that's something that I think but most physicians if not all physicians if they they have the mind to to wrap their heads around a finance world if they wanted to and have you had good buy-in by other physicians in the area yes we have I mean there's also uh you know there's almost seems to be two camps of physicians there's the forward thinking physician uh and then there's physicians that you know are kind of back in the in the model uh there's nothing no there's nothing wrong with employment I don't see that's nothing wrong with that uh you know in some physicians don't they don't see that vision and that and that's fine but the way the medicine is going is you have to decide uh you got to take control of the nar of what's going on of of the of of healthcare and this is really the only way to do it um so it's the you just kind of have to I mean you just gonna have to make a decision uh uh I mean the I think employment's a wonderful model um you know there's it you're it's it's a good model uh but you know there's also the fact that a lot of residents now are are uh are going right to employment they're not even considering uh private practice as an option it's employment's often I'm not saying often but sometimes employment's is sold as safety as a safety as a safe as a safe bet. There's and I'm sure you have stories but I have stories as well and and physicians that I know that took employment jobs and then shortly after the hospital closed that service line or a hospital business and now they're just stuck with a house in the middle of nowhere. And so often uh the employment route is is I wouldn't say it's the best choice but sometimes it is uh for this model you know I I think that you got to make sure who you're employed at is has a good alignment and a good value system. So if you are employed at a hospital um you know the the administration is is a big is a big part of that employment and how they run that culture. I think you you just need to vet them out.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

And I think one of the challenges is that we really have now big healthcare systems it's rare to have small independent hospitals. And I when I came up we did have small independent hospitals and the culture is much better because you had a president of the hospital that used to work with the medical staff they'd see every day and they're pretty aligned. But once it became a healthcare system all of a sudden now that CEO is four states away they don't even know what town you're in. They've never been there and it changes everything. So I think that's another great thing with the Selkirk Center that you know you're a standalone hospital you're gonna be part of the community's going to love it. And I'm sure they already love the whole idea of it. And are you right from that area? Are you from Selkirk area?

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Is that where you grew up I'm about an hour and a half away north grew up in gotcha. But yeah I totally agree with you I think the accountability piece if you're if you're there with everyone else and you and you're held accountable to these decisions you know you're not just making it from another state or whatever that I mean that goes a long way in how efficiently and how well businesses are ran. What could the viewers do to help you out help get the word out on your great project on the Selkirk Center well yes I I think uh if if you if you believe in the vision in the mission the vision of the of the of the hospital the uh the the potential it's going to make on the healthcare in America I think uh we repost this on social media you can reach out to me on my website uh selkirkcenter.com and it is uh is connect with us there and we can talk offline but you know we invite any physician um that is interested in this project or in to come moving to Idaho there's also options to you know potentially come in and and work and come and leave whatever we can we can work something out but I I think the main thing is I want the culture to be aligned with with physicians that are starting this project uh nurses can reach out I mean anyone can reach out to me but uh I just this is gonna be a wonderful project um and it's very exciting to be to be a part of this um so I'm looking forward to the future that sounds great you know I think this would really fit well with the direct primary care physicians I think that'd be a great model and if I was a direct patient or direct primary care in North Idaho I'd be like boy I want to get in that MOB I think that would be a great yes direct primary care it'll be we uh wouldn't we can we're definitely uh direct primary care is a great spot for this place uh if you're a physician if you're primary care pediatrics uh medicine you know uh just reach out to us because we have a plan uh so reach out to us and we can connect uh and get you integrated and really start getting a uh a a very good uh patient base I love this well I can feel the rumble starting from North Idaho spreading out and I think you're gonna be very very successful very excited and I love that we're talking about physician-led healthcare because that's what the country needs and you know that's something that we're both very passionate about.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

And the PHA the physician led healthcare in America is a great organization and I always advocate for them on X on social media because physicians don't have representation unfortunately we're you know every major piece of legislation there's two groups that aren't there at the table physicians and patients and you could tell what happens and we definitely need to get more active in the political realm.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Absolutely have you my my wife's a dentist and it's um I was with PHA it was last March last year um and the ADA was having their their conference or their uh their lobbying at the time and there's so many dentists shows up to Washington DC I mean these are everywhere uh and the physicians just seem to be that kind of have that kind of rally cry as well absolutely that they just show up absolutely it is also the PHA has an event too in September so um and to reach out to the physicians around the country uh I think it's gonna be in NAFA this uh this year it is are you going to that or yes I'll um I'll be there as well as well as my as my team uh Keith and Todd. Yeah so we'll be there.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Excellent I I'll be there as well. So it yeah and I knew Stacy she used to work with uh ACOG back in the day she was with the Marin College of OBGYN so I knew her back from those days and then she left because they were not as physician led healthcare focused as she would like so she moved over and and she does a phenomenal job. So I I think it's gonna be great. Well I want to thank you for all your time you've been so generous because I'm sure you have 50 things going on right now. But but I really thank you for that and I thank you for what you're doing. Well and I love your focus on maternity care making it personal and patients are going to love that that they they want that and they need that.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Yeah the main question to me is how would I want my experience to be in in healthcare and I think this is going to be a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

That's perfect. Well please like and follow us on social media and let us know in the comments what you think and if you have any questions for Dr. Myers I can go ahead and forward those to them. And thank you if you've made it this far in the podcast thank you for listening the whole way through and thank you Dr. Myers for giving us your time and your great answers. Really appreciate it.