Welcome back to Ask the Expert. My name is Hannah Place and I'm your host. Today you are in for a treat because we are here with Dr. Deb Moore, who is a physician who is doing direct primary care. And if you're a doctor who is looking for a new way to do medicine, this is the interview you don't want to miss.

Welcome. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. We're so excited to have you. I would love for you to just start with telling us. How is the setup of your practice different than the traditional model of practices? Absolutely. So we're a membership model practice. We do not bill insurance. So those are the primary differences between a normal fee for service insurance taking practice and mine.

Mm hmm. Okay, and what would you say is the main benefit for somebody who doesn't know the difference between this membership model and the traditional healthcare? What is the benefit of that? So, doctors know already that insurance has really come between them and their patients. And so, um, You know, for them, not billing insurance in a, in a model like this would be incredible freedom to actually take care of patients.

So that's the goal, is to take out that, that obstruction of insurance that seems to get in the way often, uh, for patient care. So now it's unobstructed. So that's the main benefit for doctors. And what are some of the obstacles of someone getting started in this? Because I see the heart for the doctors, they want to give the proper care, but there has to be some things that, the obstacles that need to be overcome, right?

Right, yes. And, you know, doctors are specialists in medicine. not in business per se or not in owning a business. So that can be one of the biggest obstacles is, uh, you really may, you need a personality that would be okay with breaking out of the norm, uh, which I would say every personality can break out of the norm.

Um, but it does take some courage. So courage is one of the first things, uh, that they need. And then the other is to have a mentor or a doctor who can walk alongside you and really do that. And that's, I had that getting started as well, and I want to be that for other doctors. What are some of your favorite things for yourself of doing medicine this way?

Um, I mean, number one would just be that I can take care of patients. I can meet them however I need to in order to meet their needs. And so, uh, we are really diverse. We have, uh, text, texting in a secure app. We have phone calls. We have video visits. And we have in person visits. So I love knowing my patients.

And so their very first visit is an hour and a half. We sit down, get to know each other. Often, we get to meet the family. I might even go to their home if they're bedridden or can't get out. And we'll just meet everybody in the family. And so, I love getting to know my patients. And then after that, just however is best for their care going forward.

That reminds me of a hundred years ago, what medicine probably looked like. Is that what you feel like? Absolutely. Yeah, so we have, uh, you know, It's, it's this whole Dr. Quinn medicine woman situation, uh, with technology that allows you to access that person quickly and easily and, uh, helps my team get involved.

And, uh, it's really that personal. Uh, hands on with the technology we have today available to us. So it's pretty amazing. Mixing the best of both worlds then. That's right. I love that. That's the new way. Yes. Are there any downfalls that you've seen for other doctors that doing medicine this way can actually prevent?

Um, you know, I think that not having, um, a knit in community, the, the current direct primary care community in the U. S. is very tight knit. Um, we're all there for each other. You can call direct primary care anywhere and, um, you have the support. So, somebody getting into direct primary care primarily, uh, to just make money, is something I've seen be a, a major downfall, is you really have to want to take care of patients better.

That has to be your motivation. And if you go into it thinking, um, any other, any other way, you're going to have trouble, and then not being knit into the community of physicians that have done this successfully. Mm. I know that you have such a passion for taking care of doctors and making sure that they are set up for success and seeing that burnout is a very real thing, right?

And so what is your message to doctors who have been doing things the traditional way and they're experiencing burnout and they're tired? Um, what do you have to say to them today? Um, I would say there's hope. There is another way to do medicine. And you don't have to be an employee to do medicine. So, I think, uh, taking courage and doing that, not getting discouraged, and not leaving medicine.

We have so many physicians who are leaving medicine by the droves and that's really making the physician deficit even worse. And you can't replace a physician, uh, with any other person. A physician is really specially trained and have a personality. So, some of those tender hearted physicians are leaving medicine.

Um, and even tragically, some of them are committing suicide. It's, it's such a, a tender place to be, the caregiver for someone. Uh, another human and who has entrusted their life to you, it's really just, uh, it's a heavy burden. And then when you take that burden of caring for that patient, but then you put a lot of middle, uh, I guess just complications to it of now you're an employed physician who is being asked to do so many visits a day and now you can't give that person the attention they need.

Um, sometimes they might even die that you're patient. And so that, that breaks our hearts and it really does put us in a position where, um, you know, we're high achieving individuals. We want to score A on the test here as an employee and we want to score A on the test here as a physician. A doctor patient relationship in the medicine.

So those high achieving individuals, which most doctors are, find themselves stuck in this, between the rock and the hard place of, my employer wants me to do this to succeed, but I know I need to do this. to succeed, and it's, uh, it's not matched well. And what would be the next steps for a physician who finds themselves exactly with what you're saying?

They have the heart for the patient. They want to be a good employee. They want to get the A on both tests, right? What is that next step of saying, I know I need something else. I know that there's a better way. What is my first step? Yeah, absolutely. Click on the button below because I want to talk to them.

I want to talk to those physicians. Um, I want to talk to you. I want to see what you are made of. What, what are your passions for healthcare? What are your passions for your practice? for your patients. Um, and then, you know, I'll meet some individuals there that even want to take it even further. And, and that's what I want to do with the direct primary care model that I'm in is, uh, make sure that other doctors have the support they need.

It's amazing. Thank you so much for what you do, Dr. Deb. You're welcome. And if you are a physician who's looking for a new way to do medicine, and Dr. Deb's message just hit you in the heart, get in touch with her today. And we'll see you next time on Ask the Expert.