Today we’d like to introduce you to JoBeth Augustyniak.
Hi JoBeth, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a small town in North Central Louisiana, very conservative area. I never really fit in. There was this hunger and desire for more. As a teenager, I became restless, hung out with all the “wrong people,” and refused to do things the “right way.” I ended up dropping out of high school in 10th grade. I tried college, but it was not a good fit at that time. At the age of 18, I moved to Dallas with $50 in my pocket and only wanting to get away, knowing I was not doing good things for myself. It was there that my lust for life and wanting more for myself grew. I just really did not know what I wanted. At the age of 19, I moved to the Northern Virginia area where I was a nanny for a cousin that lived there. It was fantastic. Meeting new people, almost no one you spoke to was actually from there, and I was able to finally feel like I could be myself. I went through a massage therapy program at night and was nanny by day. I met my (now ex-) spouse there, married quickly, and shortly after had my first child, and I was officially a stay-at-home mom. It was at that moment that I decided I wanted to go back to school, again not really knowing what I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to help people, and I was good at it. So, after my second child was born (when she was about 18 months old), I started driving a school bus part-time (special needs), took some online classes between, and cared for my children at the same time. As time went on, I changed majors three times, each time with a desire that “this in not quite it”. Finally, I realized that I was still great at school (intelligence/academics was never my problem). I was going to go for it. Medical school, that was the goal!
It was quite difficult. Moving my family back to my hometown to complete my undergraduate degree, then to Erie, PA for medical school, then to Denison, TX, for residency. But I did it! I decided on Family Medicine because I thoroughly enjoy being able to get to know patients about their lives and to be able to follow them through all of life’s stages.
Toward the end of residency, I could never imagine seeing 25-30 patients a day, more because it seems very impersonal and not a good experience for doctor or patient. I found myself at the end of residency, looking for just that because I thought I had no choice and could not initially start out doing medicine my way. However, ending residency in 2020 was not ideal. The contract I was working on fell through, and there I was, no job and it was May (graduation in July). Anyone who knows how the onboarding process works for physicians knows that it is a minimum of three months, once hired, to get through all the credentialing. A recruiter reached out to me about an opportunity in the West Texas panhandle where I would work 7 days on and 7 days off, 24 hours a day, as the sole ER physician and hospitalist. The exhaustion did get to me, and they did eventually hire a third doctor, so that changed to 5 days on and 10 off.
I always knew that I wanted to do outpatient medicine, but wanted to do it my way. Our health system is so broken and seems to be getting worse. Insurance premiums continue to go up while the amount of coverage is going down. There are so many people stuck in a situation where they cannot possibly afford insurance but do not qualify for any type of real government help. So, almost three years into my back-and-forth travel, I decided that Direct Primary Care was what I wanted to do. I would be able to make an impact on those people that are “stuck in the middle,” small businesses that cannot afford any type of insurance for their employees, and anyone else that simply wants to spend real time with their doctor and feel like more than just a number. So, I started work on learning how to open my own practice. I started work on Uplift Family Medicine. This is a direct primary care practice where I do not take or bill insurance of any kind; I created contracts with a lab to obtain direct pay prices (that are very affordable), patients pay a monthly membership fee (kind of like you do for Netflix, Amazon Prime or a gym). Direct Primary Care is not insurance, but I am able to provide well-visits, sick/urgent visits, labs, certain procedures, injectable medications, certain other treatments in my office when patients need it most. There are never any co-pays for visits.
By doing medicine this way, overhead is much lower than your traditional medical practice, so I can carry a panel of patients that is much smaller than physicians that accept insurance. I will cap my panel at 600 patients. This way, I can spend 30 minutes to an hour with patients, if needed. I have time to get to know them. I can be on-call. They can reach me by text, phone, email, virtually any time they need. It also means that my schedule is never so full that I cannot see them the same day or next day. They do not wait when they come into my office; their appointment time is theirs. This also means a reduction in ER visits, urgent care visits, and hospitalizations for my patients. They are not just a number to me, and I know that I could not feel like I was doing my best for people with a panel of 2-3,000 patients.
Things are still getting started, but I am so excited and hopeful that I can make a big impact for these individuals that really need some care and have been previously lacking this. I have been there, and it makes such a difference in someone’s life just to be able to go to the doctor whenever they need to and not worry about a huge ER bill or having to come up with hundreds of dollars for an urgent care visit, or worse, waiting until you are so sick that you need hospitalization just because you cannot afford to go see a doctor. Finally, I found it. I found me, my voice, and what I was meant to do. I am so excited!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I went through some of my earlier challenges already. It is still a challenge. I am the only physician in this area to practice medicine in this way. It is a new concept to most people in this area. So, business is starting slower than I would like. I have to be able to opt out of Medicare before I can start seeing people on Medicare or any other government program, and I cannot do that until I have enough patients to pay the bills. So, I am still working as adjunct faculty for the family medicine residency program that I graduated from. But that is ok. A little hard work is not something I have ever shied away from. I am optimistic that once people see the value of what I offer, it will continue to grow, and people will be healthier and happier, feeling truly cared for.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Uplift Family Medicine is a Direct Primary Care practice located in Denison, TX. It is a membership-based practice where I offer unlimited visits to my patients. Monthly rates are age-based, seeing ages 2-64 (65+ if they do not have Medicare). I also offer labs, procedures, nebulizer treatments, EKG, and much more. As a DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), I offer Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment, as well (no membership is required for this). Some labs, treatments, etc., do have a fee attached, but it is not for the visit or my time; it is to cover the cost of materials, medication, or pathology. I do not mark these up at all.
Patients will always see me, their physician; no waiting 30 minutes to an hour in the waiting room only to see the doctor for 5-15 minutes (and, let’s face it, most never get a full 15 minutes); that is their time and it is spent with me to discuss their health concerns and working together to come up with a plan that is in alignment with their beliefs.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I am simply excited and privileged to be able to be on this journey.
Pricing:
- Ages 2-17 $75/mo
- Ages 18-39 $85/mo
- Ages 40-64 $100/mo
- OMT treatment $50 per 1-2 areas of treatment
Contact Info:
- Website: upliftfamilymedicine.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090741582431
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/jobeth-augustyniak-do-uplift
