I really love taking care of kids and that is the passion behind my work as a pediatrician, but I never dreamed of opening my own practice. As doctors, we are very devoted to our patients and helping people is so rewarding. Unfortunately, many a doctor has gained the whole world, yet lost their marriage, children, friendships, life, and soul. I’ve always been on guard against this and have worked hard to leave my work at work and maintain healthy boundaries. Which is why I never wanted to run my own practice. So, apart from my time in the United States Army, I’ve always been an employed physician.
I like spending time with patients, being thorough, not being too busy, and practicing according to my conscience rather than an algorithm. I know my patients have appreciated this as well. On the other hand, the government, insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, bureaucrats, administrators, and the whole healthcare industrial complex have destroyed the practice of medicine in America and are often destroying the lives of doctors and patients. This was true before Covid, but the response to the pandemic has made it immeasurably worse. Patients have been deeply troubled by this, and many have lost their faith in their doctor and the system that seems to control their doctor’s practice of medicine.
Then I was fired for not getting the Covid shot! I knew when I left that there was no going back to that system, that I just couldn’t do it. Thankfully, I already knew about the wonders of Direct Primary Care (DPC). In our home, we are avid listeners of American Family Radio (AFR). It was probably around 2015 that I heard nurse Twila Brase, the president of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom on AFR talking about DPC and how it was revolutionizing primary care in America. What she said was captivating, fascinating, motivating, and inspirational—a membership-based practice that existed outside of the broken healthcare system, that gave doctors and patients autonomy, that restored the doctor-patient relationship, and that could improve health while saving patients money. I loved what I was hearing, but for me, it seemed like an impossible dream.
When everyone in my practice got fired by our corporate owners in 2018, I seriously looked into DPC, but the time was not yet right for pediatrics. Since Covid, DPC pediatric practices are popping up like Texas wildflowers in springtime. This is God’s silver lining in the dark clouds, His providential hand of motivation and leading and provision for me, my family, and my patients in the midst of losing my practice and financial stability. The name InDependence Pediatrics actually came to me in the middle of the night, and I knew it was perfect. I think that was from the Lord as well. Please come join us on this journey to independence and healthcare freedom.