Can a membership model work for Podiatry? Dr. Tea Nguyen discusses why she left insurance, avoided an early career burnout and is now offering more MIS options and non-surgical treatment in a direct care practice.

Dr. Tea Nguyen, DPM talks to Dr. Justin Trosclair, DC on A Doctor's Perspective Podcast

Dr. Tea was first on the podcast episode 28 and we do a quick recap of what was going on 5 years ago and how things have changed since leaving that clinic, having a kid and going to a direct care - cash - membership model of podiatry offering unique minimally invasive procedures.

Once becoming pregnant, she found herself having some peculiar experiences at her insurance based associate positioned job. We discuss those as well as growth, freedom and flexibility issues.

She began to consider opening a solo clinic to accommodate her new to be mother role and the flexibility that would grant her. However, she quickly found out about all the hats one must wear as the clinic owner.

Insurance Headaches and Burnout

Dr. Tea freely discusses the horrors of the insurance pay model, how and why she was losing money hand over fist in 2019, and the pinnacle moments that made her really question to continue and face burnout or make the shift to cash pay and no insurance.

She has a few versions of herself: v1, v2 and now v3.0. These range from a surgery and insurance focus, to minimally invasive procedures, to another clinic and starting a podcast to help more podiatrists (especially women) to become direct care membership model clinics.

Starting a clinic during the pandemic was not easy nor was being overstaffed for a variety of reasons and she explains what she did during this time to pivot and develop professionally and clinically.

Minimally Invasive Surgery

MIS, minimally invasive surgery, has perks like less overhead, patients are happy to not stay in a hospital and when she really critically thought about it all, she was the only one offering these services - so why be at the mercy of insurance.

Dr. Tea, DPM has a pretty simple formula for calculating her hourly rate and cost for procedures.

It’s not her place to judge how someone budgets their money. She puts her prices on her website for transparency reasons and it also helps people make a decision before even calling.

With the insurance model you don’t even get to shop around because it’s usually some line like “we don’t know exactly what your insurance will cover” and then you find out months later that you have a huge bill.

Reasons to do Membership - Direct Care Model

Poor insurance reimbursement, accompanied by heavy patient load can lead one to feel exploited and burnt out much quicker than you would anticipate.

Nobody wants a Surprise After The Fact Bill without Freedom To Choose. People Do want, peace of mind and convenience and a direct care doctor provides both.

What services would you offer if insurance would actually reimburse for them that would give superior clinical results? Between needing to be efficient and maximize patient visits and services, how do we do what’s best for the patient but also allow us to not burn out or not even make a living? Is there anything else we can offer (shockwave, PRP etc) instead of surgery?

Insurance patients aren’t as attached to the doctor, as the doctor is attached to the patient. Virtual Assistants to answer phones and do tasks are talked about at the end of the interview.

here a few of the direct care rules I have looked over

https://www.dpcare.org/state-level-progress-and-issues https://www.dpcfrontier.com/states https://boomcloudapps.com/2016/08/25/house-membership-program-state-regulations

links to its no secret and her podiatry legends interview

https://www.tysonfranklin.com/news/podiatry-legends/10989-198-dr-tea-nguyen-direct-care

https://adoctorsperspective.net/itsnosecret

link to the podiatry series https://adoctorspective.net/podiatry