Physicians Are Making The Shift. Here's What That Actually Looks Like.

If you’ve assumed that a more personalized care model requires owning your own practice first, the short answer is no. But the longer answer is more useful, because that assumption is one of the most common reasons physicians don’t explore it.

The physicians below came from different starting points — some from large institutional settings, some from their own practices — but they share something more important: each of them assumed, at some point, that the MDVIP model wasn’t available to them, or wasn’t what they thought it was. Each of them was wrong about that.

Their backgrounds are different. Their reasons for looking are different. What they have in common is that they didn’t know this option existed until someone told them it did.

“I Thought You Had to Already Have Your Own Practice”
Carmen Teague, MD, MC | 24 years in large health system | MDVIP-affiliated, Charlotte, NC
 

“My biggest hesitation to joining MDVIP was believing that you could truly practice medicine in the way that they said you could. I was afraid financially that we couldn’t make it. I was afraid patients wouldn’t come. I was afraid I would fail.”

— Carmen Teague, MD, MC 

None of those fears came true. Fourteen months into her MDVIP-affiliated practice, she was already back to the same level of financial stability she had before, with a fraction of the patients and none of the institutional constraints.

“Within 14 months, I was already back to the same level of financial stability I had before — except now I am caring for 10% of the patients. And I am happy again. It turned out to be the best decision of my entire career.” 
— Carmen Teague, MD, MC 

What finally opened the door for her wasn’t a strategic decision. It was a phone call from a friend who practiced as an MDVIP-affiliated physician.

“He told me the story of how MDVIP is very different from what I thought concierge medicine looked like and how it’s all about wellness, providing value to patients and allowing them to engage in a personal relationship with a physician. And I thought: oh, that’s different. That’s something I could be a part of.” 
— Carmen Teague, MD, MC 

“It’s Sort of Given a Boogeyman Vibe to Be Your Own Practitioner” 
Keisha Ellis, MD | Internist and endocrinologist | MDVIP-affiliated, Alpharetta, GA 

Dr. Ellis describes something many physicians recognize: the experience of spending years inside a large practice environment without ever fully questioning whether there was another way.

“A lot of times what we as doctors experience is you’re kind of funneled into the corporate healthcare system and you don’t really see outside. It’s sort of given like a boogeyman vibe to be your own solo practitioner. It’s very much like, why would you do that when someone can take care of you and you’re salaried?” 
— Keisha Ellis, MD 

What changed for her was a friend who kept raising the possibility, persistently enough that she eventually stopped deflecting and started listening. Looking back, she knows exactly what she’d tell the version of herself who was still in that environment:

“If I can speak to my past self, I would have said: it’s fine, go ahead. I would have told her to do it sooner. Listen to that first phone call, not the third phone call.” 
— Keisha Ellis, MD 

“I Knew I Couldn’t Go Back to Not-Good Medicine” 

David Johnson, MD | Family medicine | Carson City, NV | MDVIP-affiliated physician 

Dr. Johnson’s framing is the simplest of the three, and perhaps the most clarifying. He doesn’t describe a dramatic turning point or a persistent friend who changed his mind. He describes a physician who had experienced both sides of medicine and knew the difference.

“I have a very clear idea of what practicing medicine is supposed to be like, because I have practiced good medicine and I have practiced medicine that I thought was not good medicine. And when I was faced with the possibility that we were going back to not-good medicine, I knew I couldn’t.” 
— David Johnson, MD, family medicine, Carson City, NV 

What the MDVIP model offered him wasn’t a compromise; it was a way to practice the kind of medicine he believed in. The decision, in his telling, was less a leap than a recognition.

“It turned out to be the best decision of my entire career. My only regret is not doing it sooner.” 
— David Johnson, MD 

What These Physicians Have in Common

Each of them describes a version of the same moment: the realization that the assumption they had been carrying — that this wasn’t available to them, or wasn’t what they thought it was — was simply wrong. Whether they came from a large institutional setting or an existing practice, the path into the MDVIP model looked different from what they expected. And for all of them, it turned out to be the right one.

If you’ve been asking whether there’s a different way to practice, that assumption is worth examining. The path exists. Other physicians who were where you are have already taken it.