[INTRODUCTION]
Announcer
At Freedom Healthworks, we are focused on putting medical professionals back in control of their practices, utilizing a structured, tailored approach to business startup and operations. It could make sense for you to work with our professional team to avoid expensive pitfalls, and more importantly, expedite your journey to success. As we all know, time is money. If you're involved in the practice of medicine and desire to practice free of headaches and constraints, reach out for a no obligation, consultative conversation, call us today at 317-804-1203 or visit FreedomHealthworks.com.
[EPISODE]
Christopher Habig
Welcome to Healthcare Americana, your go-to podcast for all things related to direct primary care and the innovative world of healthcare. I'm your host, Christopher Habig, CEO and co-founder of Freedom Healthworks. Each week, we dive into the latest trends, share insightful stories, and explore the innovations that are reshaping healthcare as we know it. Our mission is to inspire, educate, and empower you to take control of your healthcare journey.
Today joining us for our conversation comes from beautiful Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Nicole Ascanio is the founder of aspireMD, a direct primary care practice. She's here to share her insights on running a successful DPC practice while also maintaining a healthy work-life balance and growing her own family. So a special take from a physician who also does part-time work, I should say, or maybe it's full-time at this point as a caring mother of three, Dr. Ascanio, welcome to Healthcare Americana. It's a pleasure to have you on the show again.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Thank you, thank you. It does not, I can't believe it was three years ago that we did the last one. I actually was thinking we used to talk so frequently when I was first starting and then, you know, three years goes by and it doesn't, it doesn't feel like it's been that long. But thank you for having me back.
Christopher Habig
It's always a pleasure to talk with longtime clients and just great all-around people. For those in our audience who haven't listened to your episode, you got to dig back in the archives back to April of 2021. I remember the first time you and I spoke back then, though, it was in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Everything was shutting down. We didn't know what life was going to throw at us. And then we got a phone call from you.
And you're saying, hey, I might be crazy, but I want to start my DPC practice now. In hindsight, you know, three, four years later after doing that for launching during the the COVID pandemic, give us a little like kind of genuflection back on that. What was going through your mind then versus now after experiencing everything?
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
I mean, that probably tells you just how bad it was to be ready to jump ship in the midst of the pandemic. I'm trying to remember specifically, I think I opened January, 2021. So, and the pandemic was kind of gearing up maybe like spring of 2020. So, cause I remember being, I was in my employed position, you know, just outpatient hospital owned primary care. And we, and then the pandemic came, so everything like shifted and that was just like, that was honestly more of a break at first than everything else. Because people weren't coming in for regular stuff and it was like let's slow down let's figure what we need to do here but it still was like I need to get out of this world so I had known for a bit before the pandemic even it wasn't that the pandemic was like an impetus. It was just a very interesting time you know to start. But I had known that…I can't do this forever it was just your very stereotypical practice where it was RVU based and hospital-owned.
So like here's your productivity, this is how many people you have to see and this is your template and I didn't have control over my template, I didn't have control over how long I wanted you know someone 65 plus to be for an office visit. It was this and this is what you get. And then like your monthly report cards where it's patient satisfaction scores and quality metrics and I was just like this is not what I'm looking to do forever.
But at the time my husband was starting his ophthalmology practice so you know we needed to start like paying back some loans and stuff so you know you kind of slide into that paycheck and at least you start paying some bills. But it didn't take I think I was there for two and a half years and by that two-year mark I was like, okay, something's got to give. So that's when I started doing some research on it and I knew that I didn't feel because I'd already had one kiddo at the time and I didn't feel like I wanted to do it all by myself. I didn't feel like I was going to be able to figure out how to cross every T and dot every I by myself. I knew I could have but I was also working, and I didn't want to have this big gap where I wasn't working. All of that. So that's when I started to think. And actually my dad was helpful with this too and he found a couple of people who helped transition into this direct primary care world. Cause I had fortunately learned about direct primary care in residency. So like that was part of our practice management and they kind of taught us about it. So I knew it was there. I just was like, okay, but how do you get everything done and done the right way and legally and all of that sort of stuff. So that's where we found you guys. And I was like, this is exactly what, I'm looking for.
I want to make sure that I can open the doors and know that everything was done correctly. And it's also scary because you have to recruit the patients. In any other situation really unless you own your own practice and have to go market yourself, you walk into your office and your schedule's full. You know you don't have to do that part of it so that was a scary part. But then I remember talking to my…when I did like my exit from my employed position…the CEO, you have to talk with the CEO for, you know, and he was very kind. But he was like just a really interesting time to be opening your own cash-based practice. And I was like, yep, but the other option is now I can't do it anymore.
Christopher Habig
It was an interesting timing and I appreciate the kind words there and you know looking back from our side of it, we're working with you.
Like it was still very early in our company and we're like, we're not really sure where this is going to go because at that point in time we were working with a lot of what I'm going to call later career physicians, doctors who were looking at the direct primary care model as a way to extend their careers and then build some kind of terminal value so they're not just locking the doors and giving their patients away to the closest hospital system. But every our conversations were like, you know, there's a whole segment of physicians that luckily turned out to be correct.
I guess it's kind of a bittersweet because of what hospitals were doing to physicians, what I'm going to call early career physicians, like yourself, that you're a couple years out of residency, you had your first hospital contract, and then you're like, I can't do this anymore. And that kicked off really a firestorm of a lot of other physicians in that same type of career phase where we're saying, wow, this model isn't just for those who are looking to retire and go part time and kind of keep on. This is something where a doctor wants to come into this model for the next 20, even 30 years of their career. Curious on your thoughts, looking back three years to now, different conversations you've had with physicians who might fit that early career billing and what your advice is to them, what your conversations are with them, and are they really experiencing the same stuff that you did three, four years ago?
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Yeah. I mean, I've talked to, I've talked to people who are early, you know, primary care docs who are in the hospital system kind of world and they know all about what I'm, what drug primary care is. And they're like, you're doing it. Like, it just was such like envy. And I just want to kind of say, like, if I can do it, like you can do it. Cause I don't have like a business background. I am not like really business savvy. I always found myself to be like, I know a lot about, you know, what I'm doing here, like primary care, but like ask me something about history, ask me something about, you know.
I don't know and I'm just like sorry that's not my thing I don't know that. So I wasn't and I'm not like business minded thinking about doing like my own bookkeeping and all of that you know but that stuff is easy once you start doing it once you start learning it and then the things that you have to take on as someone who owns your own practice in addition you know to just practicing medicine feels at first overwhelming but it just it becomes something that you kind of enjoy doing because you're doing it for yourself. You're not doing it for somebody else.
So I would also say if you can swing it and if you're in residency and are thinking about it, you know, for us and my family, it didn't work right out of residency. You know, it would have been tough for two people to build a practice, you know, from the ground up at the same time. But if you're thinking about it, if you're like, I think I'm going to do it at some point, you know, try to do what you can to make it work, you know, right away because I did two and a half years, which definitely, I mean, I learned plenty during those two and a half years, but I feel fortunate that I started this as early as I did because it is a big deal and it does, you do have to put work in and you have to like get the patient volume where you need it to be and it takes some time.
So it actually is interesting to me to hear that like the idea was later career physicians, because in my mind it'd be like, well, man, I'm so close, you know, like I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna finish it out. And in my mind it was like, okay, let me start now because I want this to be something that has longevity to it. But if I can do it, you can do it.
Christopher Habig
Yeah, well, an inspiration to everybody out there. And yeah, and early on, because our company, our first clients went live in 2016, right? So it was a couple years later. And we were dealing with physicians who were a lot of independent practices and then switching them over. And then again, it's like coming out of the employment world. Those were a lot of what the early career doctors and it and I said it's bittersweet because it's kind of sad that the hospital system and the healthcare industry at large is being so oppressive to those early physicians who, I mean, come on, we're that age. Like we got a lot more energy than most people. I don't want to paint with a broad brush here, but you know, it's, docs are excited. They're like, I'm going to, I'm able to go out there and make a difference. I'm able to help people and then to just get weighed down and find out that that dream is just not real. And then being able to go into independent business.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
And the other thing I think about too, it's like, I don't, we're in primary care. You know what I mean? Like we are, we're kind of like the bottom of the barrel when it comes to medicine as far as income potential and prestige and sometimes even respect, lots of times respect.
Patients will talk to me or whether I was in my employed position. And of course, my relationships with patients are different now, but no one would ever call my husband by his first name. He's an ophthalmologist and no one would ever walk in and say, hi Brandon, like one of his patients, but people would call me Nicole all the time. And it's just probably a mix of being female and being in a primary care setting. And I've got patients who do that now, but it's more like because our relationship is closer.
But it's just when you think about that, it's like we go into medicine and we choose our field because we want to, you know, take care of families and take care of people. We're not doing it to make, you know, the most money we can possibly make or we would not be in that field. And it's what we have to do. You talk to any other physician out there, they understand and they're like, I could never do it. They understand the amount of…that we have to give to each of our patients. You know, like we're talking head to toe, mental health, physical health, preventative care, it's just everything. And it's daunting for us, but also for so many other physicians to think about doing.
So when you think about that and the fact that we're not in it for millions of dollars a year, and we are the ones who feed specialists as well, and we're the ones who control referrals, and where we send people for certain things. You'd think that there would be a push to separate how we...even just down to schedule, a primary care doc schedule versus a specialist schedule. Like it's just common sense, you know, like give them the time to take care of the patients and keep them happy and keep the doctor happy so that everything else can feed forward. Like my husband, if he has a day in clinic, he can see 40 people in a day and it's perfectly fine because they're only asking about the eyes and he only really needs to do like 30 seconds of small talk and look at the eye and he knows what's going on. You know what I mean? Like you don't need a lot of time.
Your kidney specialist, you know, doesn't need to sit there and listen to you talk about your depression and all this other stuff because it's just not what they do. They tell you go back to see your primary doc. So we need time. That's what makes you that's what makes the difference between a good or a bad, you know, experience with your primary doctor. So it just was always wild to me that they didn't get that. And I think people are leaving the field left and right and if you just treat the primary care or listen to what they need and treat them better the system can be fixed you know but it's never gonna happen because it's all about money in the bottom line and all of that so thankfully there's another option.
Christopher Habig
I never say never in our world, right? Like look how far we've all come really as an industry. We're talking with Dr. Nicole Ascani of aspireMD at Omaha, Nebraska. I do want to talk about the lifestyle and the personal side of being your own business owner, but you've touched upon a couple of things earlier and then just now the interaction with patients.
In the last three or four years, how have the interactions with your patients changed? And just to cover the story, early on with the marketing initiatives, we had to do a lot of education. And we said, we were working with you to do that. Had to do a lot of education because patients would just kind of, we'd say direct primary care, or we'd say concierge medicine, or we'd say membership medicine, people's eyes would kind of glaze over like, it just does not compute how has the patient sophistication level, I guess is the best way to say that, about how your business works, how has that changed over the last few years?
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
It's definitely gotten better. And you know, I'm living it day to day, so I don't see it as like from three years ago to now. But when I really think back, I was the only one in Omaha doing direct primary care when we opened, which you think at first is a good thing because you don't have competition. But then you realize you don't need that many bodies, you know, to have a full panel. And what we ended up doing, like you said, was trying to educate people on what this was.
There was other parts of the country, you know, that people understood what it was. So as long as they knew you were doing it and they liked you, then they could find you. But this was like, okay, let me explain, you know, the difference. And it was so much more, once you're here and experiencing it, you understand and you could never go back. So it ended up being a lot of word of mouth, you know, so someone would say, you got to talk to my doctor. You got to check this person out. But now...fast forward and I think I stopped doing any kind of marketing like Instagram ads, Facebook ads, whatever when I was a couple months into my pregnancy with my third kiddo because I knew that I was going to kind of have to shift a little bit of what I did once I had the baby. Not necessarily take like a classic maternity leave, but adjust. So I didn't want to recruit patients and be like, Hey, here I am total access. And then say, sorry, I'm also having a third baby. So I just like paused just marketing. People still came and I never and I still have yet my baby's six months old and I've yet to restart any kind of marketing because people are still finding me and it's at a pace that I'm comfortable with and I always I've got a couple people here and there who just sign up like they just go to the website and then all sudden I see that I have a new patient and I'm like man they know what they're looking for.
So I always start when someone calls and has a question. I call them back I always start with like how did you find me? And they'll say, well, I used to have a direct primary care doctor before I moved or I used to do this or I I've been reading about what you know you do. And so people know way more now than they did a few even just a few years ago about it. So that's so helpful. And I think the more traction this gains across the country, the easier it's going to be for every direct primary care doctor because the people understand and you don't have to do so much like explaining this is what you get. I understand it's outside of your insurance or it's outside of the traditional, you know, what you think, but, you know, explaining, explaining can just sometimes be challenging. And then once you're busier, you just don't have as much time, you know, to do that. So people are definitely putting on.
Christopher Habig
Yeah, and I appreciate you going there too because I think that's important for, you know, not just DPC physicians, but even doctors looking to get into the model or saying, how am I going to grow my practice? You know, to hear those words that, hey, it's okay to do advertising. It doesn't cheapen your product at all. Either some education you're going to be and you're spot on that there are different pockets of the country where it's going to be cheaper in your first year or two from an advertising cost standpoint than others. And that's just the best bottom line of it, but you do overcome that initial inertia and you get over that hump where you're like, look, now my patients are educating others and that's got to feel good.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Yeah, some people they'll ask me like, did my friends so and so reach out to you yet? I told her all about you. And I mean, just like my Google reviews, like they're just so kind and they're and it's sad because it's like this is I think the access to me and the ability to just text and talk to directly to me pretty much any time you want to. And they're very respectful of like, you know, after work hours is different right than your regular primary care world of course but the rest of it is like this is just what should be happening everywhere you know what I mean like I don't feel like we're not doing anything fancy here you know it's like this is just what you should be getting for your primary care period but you can't outside of this this kind of practice it is very sad and I say it all the time people don't realize how diluted their primary care is
Christopher Habig
Kinda sad, isn't it?
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
in the traditional world because not because that doctor wants to dilute it but because that doctor has to dilute it to get through and to and but the patient doesn't know any better. It's sad.
Christopher Habig
Yeah, it almost leaves you speechless I'm just kind of shaking my head here behind camera want to switch want to talk about the lifestyle and your family life three young kids with a six-month-old as of as of this discussion.
How do you balance all of that with your own business? Because I think that is a huge barrier. And transparently, the majority of our clientele, the majority of doctors reaching out to us are female. And the balance and the lifestyle, being able to be a mother and being able to be a business owner and a physician, that's kind of this tug of war that historically they've had to at least cut out one, maybe two of those different identities from their life because it is all hospital or nothing.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Yeah, I mean, it's. I think what we're seeing now, one of the good things that the pandemic did was kind of made people realize that we should not be so rigid in the nine to five Monday through Friday workday, especially for females. And I think that a lot of companies, fortunately not in healthcare, but are realizing that giving especially moms more flexibility with their work - outcomes are going to be so much greater because you just can't do it and it's not it's not every family where it's like this, but by and large the female takes on the majority of the child care household stuff.
So yes, my husband and I split stuff, no question, when he's home. But his job is just more time demanding and more structured than mine is. So that leads me with all that extra time to take care of everything. But the other part of it was I wanted to be home to get my kids breakfast. I wanted to try to make sure that one of us was able to take them to school every day and pick them up from school most days. I didn't want them to be in after school care, which there's nothing wrong with after school care, but I just wanted to be able to not spend just two hours of awake time with my kids every day. I wanted to know their friends. I wanted to be there to help to do homework and to not have everything be so crazy.
When I had two kids in the last like eight months maybe of my work at my employed position and it was insane. I mean I would we would be out the door at 6 30 in the morning with two kids going to daycare and so it'd be like making sure I had the bottles and all this stuff that needed to get out the door so that I could start seeing my patient at 7 a and I started that early because I wanted to get out by 4 which really oftentimes turned into 5 and then go pick up the kids and get home with everybody's stuff.
You know, at that point I was still pumping, so it was like pump bag, lunches, bottles, all the stuff needed to be cleaned and it's dinner time, but the kids just want your attention. And I was like, there was that tug and pull of like, no, I can't play right now. Like I need to get dinner ready. And then it's like rush, rush, rush. And then I dreaded it. I dreaded five to seven. And that was my time, you know, with my kids. And I was like Monday and this was Monday through Thursday. And I'm like, I understand it's only four days a week, but this is not like this is not what I want. It's not sustainable.
So trying to think like what can you actually do aside from working just part-time? So you think I could just work part-time but part-time in primary care and not again hospitals like own setting is not part-time You know it ends up people always tell you like yeah, I'm down to point six But it still feels like full-time, you know, just because that's just what ends up happening You still have the same panel member, you know, they don't change that on you. So there's still that much coming in so that was a big push for me and it's just unbelievable what I've been able to do and maintain, you know, like salary-wise for myself and also do family-wise. Like I can leave at two o’clock if I need to like I just alter my schedule.
And my husband will sometimes joke you do more work on the weekends or after hours than I do. And I say yeah because that allows me to pick up my daughter at three o’clock. So if I have to do a zoom at five you know or whatever it is like I don't mind that. And if I'm answering some questions on a Sunday afternoon from patients you know so that I start Monday with a clean plate like I don't mind that at all. So you're able to flex when you're working and when you're not. So I move everything around when my kids need me and when they don't need me as much.
So I know that when I come home from picking Sophie up from school before I go get my son, she's seven years old. Like she can take care of herself, get her snack. And I say, hey, mom needs to go do a couple of patient calls and just leave me alone until I'm done. And I take care of it. And instead of having to stay in the office until five, you know, and make someone else take care of my daughter. And then even when I had my baby, I was a little worried because it's just me in the office. I don't have like a medical assistant. I have a virtual assistant, which is fantastic. But there's no one else there. So I thought, how am I going to do this? How's this going to go? And fortunately for me, each baby, my personal recovery has been quicker and quicker because I think you're just like, all right, let's do this. We don't have time. Like there's no, you have other kids to take care of. And I kind of told patients ahead of time and Clint gave me them plenty of warning and explained I will always be available via text for any kind of urgent stuff. I'm always available. Like you're not going to bug me more than my kids bug me on a day-to-day basis so if you need something reach out to me.
And then I said you know I'm going to take like two weeks where you pretend like I'm on vacation and then after that I'll do you know virtual stuff as needed and I mean I saw a patient because I felt perfectly fine doing so when I was 10 days postpartum because that was when the baby was still sleeping all day long and I was like yeah I'll just you know what let me just run in and see you real quick and it was fine but so yeah I didn't have three months of like complete you know removal from work where I didn't get bothered by a thing.
But what I had was, so far, six months of being able to be extremely flexible and work some and some during this time and less during this time. Like when my mom comes, she'll come for six weeks, eight weeks. And during those times, I pack in way more visits because I know that I can just leave the baby with my mom. So you just, you can do whatever you want and make it work. And it has been fantastic.
Christopher Habig
You mentioned this, you know, when you were an employee that you had this two hour gap from five to seven where you'd come home and now you got to be in mom mode. And you said you almost dreaded it. And I think a lot of people can understand that and feel that where you're you're go, go, go all day long. And then you get home and your kids are crawling all over another foot because they want that attention. And you start to feel guilty about the fact you're like, where are my priorities right now? You know, it's a it's a different, different feeling from, you know, my standpoint as a father and a husband than what yours is as a wife and a mother. But there's a lot of similarities there because I get almost long days at the office and we're trying to stand up DPC all over the country here and sometimes I get home you're so chewed they're just like my gosh I want to interact and go play and run around outside. There's no gas in the tank.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Yeah. Have anything left.
Literally the last thing I want to do is go into that playroom right now. And then I go to bed at night and I'm like so guilty and sad that like, you know, they just want to play with me. But like food has to be made. Laundry still has to be done. And it's like such a, it's hard. It's so hard.
Christopher Habig
Then you get a short temper and there's a mess and you're like, my gosh, what is going on? Why can't everything be perfect right now? And it's like, okay, let's take it back. In the last three years or so after you've made the switch into independent DPC, how has that changed your relationship with your kids? You talked about the scheduling and the flexibility and what you're able to do. And it seems like you found your balance, but the interpersonal relationship between your kids and even your husband, because family is…there's an old joke kind of around our hallways here that DPC is a family business. Every time we talk to a doctor, we're like, hey, when can we get your support team, whether it's a spouse or a professional consultant or parents, when can we get them on the phone? Because we want to make sure they're on board with this too, because it's hard to launch any business these days. How has that changed your relationship with your family being an independent business center.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Yeah. I think with my husband and I; I was extremely just irritable before. And I think I felt...kind of resentful because I was just trying to manage so many different things and I didn't have the time to do so. And in primary care, again, my income and salary paled in comparison to his, you know, and that was, he never made ever has never made me feel like my job is less important than his, but just strictly from a money coming in, bills needing to be paid, loans needing to be paid, you know what I mean? Like his work has to take priority as far as time like so he has to leave early earlier than me because he has to do surgery you know what I mean but then I'm stuck like doing all this trying to work full-time but then also manage everything else and I was just…I wasn't happy. And then being able to make the switch was just such a weight lifted and knowing that I was able to make my own schedule so if I need to take Sophia to dance on Thursdays, then I know that I stop early on Thursdays and I don't schedule, you know, stuff like that could never be done otherwise.
And also the feeling of knowing that I'm working for myself. I was also just irritated that I was like working for the system that wasn't working for me, you know, that wasn't helping me take care of patients when I'm the one who went to medical school. I'm the one who took on all the loans. I'm the one who, you know, spent my 20s, you know, grinding and trying to get through, but I'm working for them, you know, and they don't care about me enough to even let me adjust my templates day to day. So that also irritated me. And I saw my husband working for himself, how he wanted to practice, and being respected. And it totally shifted that whole dynamic. And then with my kids, I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I...having kids, I don't care what you do. I don't care if you stay at home, I don't care if you work 80 hours a week. Kids are hard. So I still snap sometimes. I'm still the one who raises the voice, my voice in the house. My husband is very level-headed, but they drive me nuts sometimes. But I think that a big part of that is because I'm around so much more. And I think, like I grew up with a stay-at-home mom, so I always remember just my mom always being there. And I think that they also understand, you know, that they're, I think they'll grow up and look back and think my mom was also always there, which was, it's really important to me. And I didn't, a huge part of me, like I love my career and it definitely, I couldn't be a stay-at-home mom. I think they have the absolute hardest jobs that exist. I mean, there is no question in my mind that that's a different breed.
So I get a lot of satisfaction out of my career, but I also knew that being a mom and my family was gonna come first no matter what. And I feel like I actually am able to do that, put my family first while also getting out of my career what I need to get out of. And you cannot, in my opinion, do that working outside of this model. I just don't think it's possible.
Christopher Habig
It goes back to what you said earlier that the pandemic, you know, all the shutdowns and everything just opened a lot of people's eyes that maybe maybe this isn't the best way to treat employees. Maybe this isn't the best way to have a family life where everything is just going 100 miles an hour. It's okay to settle down every once in a while. And from my standpoint, I'm kind of the disciplinarian in my family, too. So I understand the fact that, hey, well-behaved kid, it's worth the investment now to have some well-behaved kids in the future. Then those compliments always feel good, right?
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Yeah. We're great kids, but man, if you're telling me that you don't get irritated or snapper, like, you know, spend some time thinking about what things were like before you had kids, then you're just, you're lying. You're a liar. I don't believe you. I love them.
Christopher Habig
As we wrap up here, Dr. Ascanio, and yeah, I agree, right? Everybody's got their own kind of flavor to it, but I want the, I like the compliments from people that say, you know, your kids are so well-behaved in a restaurant or something, you're like, my gosh, just that makes everything else just go a lot easier. And I don't know if all the gray on my head is from kids or work, but maybe a mix of both there.
Before we go, last thing I wanted to bring up is that you yourself are a podcast host. So give us a little feel of what that looks like, what your podcast is called, and how your patients react to hearing their doctor. Really be the expert on a lot of different topics that you bring up.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
So what the podcast is funny, it's called the Doctor and Dad Healthcast. So fun play on words there.
But this was my dad's thing. And my dad is not in medicine at all. He is somebody who is extremely intelligent and did different things with employee benefits and life and disability insurance and whatever, but took a really strong interest in health. Probably around the time I started med school, I think, and just being proactive and preventative care and just overall health and wellness. And then once I started, I remember once I got through residency and everything and we moved to Omaha, he came up with this idea. He wanted to start a podcast and I'm like, great, have fun. Like what about what? And he, you know, about health and cause he would send me journal articles, you know, and he's, he's has the ability to, you know, pick something up and read it and understand it. You know, if I went and read like insurance stuff, it would just be way over my head. But you know, he was, and he understood the difference in like good data, bad data, good journals, and he'd send me the stuff and he...brought this idea of the podcast and I thought it was just his podcast and I was gonna like be a guest on it sometimes because again I have a job I've got a kid, one on the way, you know, like don't add anything to my plate, please.
Then I like got the logo and I was like this is called the Doctor and Dad Healthcast so this is our podcast clearly and this is not just like a hey see ya like maybe here and there and I was like okay fine I'll give it a go. And he's like you know if nothing else we just can chat with each other you know weekly and at first it was weekly. It's not quite weekly anymore. But I said to him a couple of things. It has to be short. And by short. I mean like between 30 and 45 minutes-ish. One because I'm busy and two because I there's so many podcasts I would love to listen to, and I look at it, and I'm like this is two and a half hours long. Like, who has two and a half hours to sit and listen to this topic.
Like he'd send me stuff all the time and I'm like, yeah, that sounds really cool. Maybe I'll read the show notes because I don't have, I can't wait till I have three hours to just sit and listen to a podcast. Like that's wild to me. And then there's so many podcasts out there that are so good and I just, you can't, you just can't do it. So I was like, it has to be short and it's all health related stuff. So it's either interesting new research or trying to debunk certain things that are out there. But it's quick kind of snippet type stuff easily digestible. It's for the average person. It's not for you know anyone like necessarily even in the medical community but I think it can help what I did realize was you get so honed into your specialty so once my husband will ask me something and I'll be like man
went to med school too but then you realize when you're far removed from stuff you forget all kinds of other things. So you know it's just easily digestible health kind of information and I'm always surprised like I still he has all the data on listen like listeners and that sort of thing. I don't like go through that but I'm shocked sometimes when a patient will come to me I've even gotten a couple because they heard they listen to our podcast and I'm like no way because I still don't think anyone but like family members are listening to this thing. And I had another person, he told me, because he goes to the gym every day and walks the track at the gym. And I've been seeing him for a while. And he reached out to me because he had a question about one of our podcasts. And I'm like, I didn't even know you knew about our podcast. And that's on me. I don't do enough like pushing it out there. Again, because of the time thing. I could take an assistant use an assistant who did a lot of social media for me. That would be that would be great.
But yeah, it's kind of cool when they say I listen to your podcast on blank. Or I'm a lot like your father. And I'm like what do you mean you're a lot like my father? You don't know my father. And they're like cuz I listen to your podcast. And I'm just like always so flattered to hear that they listen to it
Christopher Habig
I love it. I love it. And it's the family element of it too, which is kind of the overarching theme of our conversation here. And, you know, I do want to congratulate you because you do the work to put your voice out there. You do the work to educate your patients. And I think that is so, so important for any physician to understand. Like, you are writing your own content when you send out your patient newsletters. You're doing it. And I think a lot of doctors out there say, hey, this would be great if I did this and this and this. And then they never actually follow through and that's okay. I'm like that too. I got a million ideas. Just ask any one of my team members and they're like, gosh, you know, here comes Chris's section of the meeting. Like let's all brace ourselves for, you know, some different ideas that some, some are bad, some are good, but I just wanted to, you know, patch on the back for just taking that initiative and going out there and saying, you know what? It's not okay just to react to what my patients need. I'm going to be proactive and give them information. They might not need it yet, but there might come a day where they catch the right content at the right time and it's able to affect them. So kudos for you for doing that.
Dr. Ascanio with aspireMD, Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Ascanio, thanks again for once again coming back onto our show and a big thank you for a great working relationship all these years. It really has been a pleasure to see your practice take off and grow to where it is.
Dr. Nicole Ascanio
Thank you. Well, again, it all started with you guys, so I'm very appreciative.
Christopher Habig
And to our listeners, thank you for joining us on this episode of Healthcare Americana. We hope you found today's discussion insightful and very inspiring, especially from Dr. Ascanio's standpoint. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. For more episodes and the latest updates, visit our website at healthcareamericana.com. Once again, I'm Christopher Habig reminding you to stay informed, stay healthy, and stay empowered. Until next time, take care.
[OUTRO]
Announcer
Check out healthcareamericana.com to hear all of our episodes. Visit the shop and learn more about the podcast. Healthcare Americana is produced and managed by Taylor Scott and iPodcastPro.
FreedomDoc
Healthcare Americana is brought to you by Freedom Healthworks and FreedomDoc. If you've been struggling to get the care you need and the access you want, it's time to join your local FreedomDoc. Visit freedomdoc.care to find the practice location nearest you.
Free Market Medical Association
Whether you're a patient's employer or physician, the Free Market Medical Association can facilitate and assist you in your free-market healthcare journey. The foundation of our association is built upon three pillars: price, value, and equality with complete transparency in everything we do. Our goal is simple, match willing buyers with willing sellers of valuable healthcare services. Join us and help accelerate the growth of the free-market healthcare revolution. For more information on the Free Market Medical Association, visit fmma.org.
[END]