We recently connected with Allison Cardon and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Allison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
It’s 2015 and Trevin is finishing up his second year of medical school. He is taking his first set of board exams and getting ready for his third year of medical school. Third year is when clinical rotations begin. Its also the time that medical students typically start thinking about what specialty they will pursue. At home we have a four year old and a two year old. Trevin has always known he wanted to do primary care in some capacity. He loves creating and building relationships with patients, following their care for many years and even generations. As a kid he had the most amazing family doctor who would ask him about football or his family every time he came in for an appointment. This was the kind of doctor Trevin wanted to be.
Unfortunately with the set up of our current healthcare and insurance system primary care doctors have to see a patient every 15 minutes all day. The tests that are run and decisions made about patients’ health are at the mercy of insurance companies. There is no time to chat with patients, there was really not even time to give patients quality care. Family physicians running on this schedule often burn out quickly as well. They spend their days rushing in and out of patient rooms feeling like they have given sub-par care because of the lack of time. They spend their evenings and nights charting and trying to catch up on patient messages but always feeling behind.
As Trevin approached the clinical years of medical school we knew we did not want this life for our family. Partway through Trevin’s third year of medical school he got involved in an organization that teaches medical students about something called Direct Primary Care. THIS was our answer. Direct primary care is a membership based model for primary care outside of insurance. Patients pay a monthly membership fee (similar to a gym or Netflix) that covers all primary care their doctor can provide in their office. Seeing 1/5 of the patients of a traditional family medicine doctor gives time to make relationships, help patients focus on lifestyle solutions, and provide more than just a prescription or a quick fix. It allows doctors to practice medicine in a more personal way. As we learned more through the remainder of medical school we knew this was going to be the solution for Trevin. We started making plans about the practice we would start after residency.
Medical school ended, Trevin matched to the Fort Collins Family Medicine Residency program. We were going to our hometown. By this point we had three kids (7, 5, & 2). Every free moment Trevin and I had together was daydreaming about this perfect direct primary care practice that we would have someday. With my degree in accounting I would run the business side of it and he would run the healthcare side.
Residency proved to be brutal. Trevin worked an average of 80 hours a week. Sometimes he worked weeks of nights, or sometimes 36 hour shifts. A normal day was 14-16 hrs. It all proved to be very taxing on him physically and mentally. We were living in a high cost of living area. With small kids at home it made more sense financially for me to be home with them. Resident salaries are very low and financially things were hard. We got creative and made it work but in the back of our minds was always the thought how in the world were we going to start a business if we couldn’t find a way to save any money. The further into residency Trevin got the more and more he was assured that traditional family medicine clinics were not for him. He was already feeling the burnout of seeing so many people in a day and feeling like he was giving subpar care. We knew we needed to start this clinic but that felt scary knowing our bank accounts were empty and our time was very limited between his 80 hour work weeks and the three little kids we had at home.
In the last year of residency we knew that we had to open our clinic immediately after residency. Trevin would not be getting a job in a corporate hospital system clinic. He needed to get out of that system. He needed to be able to practice medicine without being restricted by hospital administration or insurance companies. Trevin took a job moonlighting one weekend a month at a rural hospital in eastern Colorado. This would allow us to have some money to start the clinic and a little extra in the bank when residency paychecks stopped coming. I got to work getting us a small business loan. I talked to many lenders who loved our concept but without any assets or cash could not give us a loan. I was finally able to secure a loan and we got to work on Hometown Family Health.
We named our clinic Hometown Family Health since we were back in the town Trevin and I both grew up in. Beyond quality patient care we wanted our clinic to be a part of the community. This is the community that helped raise us. The community that we played high school sports in, carried after school jobs, and the volunteer opportunities that boosted our college resumes. Its where we spent time with our families, made memories with friends, and received guidance from mentors who propelled us to where we are. We love our hometown.
As residency ended we has some patients enrolled in Hometown Family Health, we had secured a lease, and we had bought some medical supplies. Trevin had a few moonlighting jobs to pay the bills and cover any costs in the business until it was profitable. In order to keep our costs low Trevin watched youtube videos to create a website and I used an app to design our marketing materials. Come July 1 we knew we would no longer be receiving paychecks from the residency program and we no longer had health insurance or any kind of benefits. We had three kids at home, a mortgage, and very little in our bank account. This is by far the biggest risk we had taken in our 12 years of marriage.
We are coming up on a year since that July 1st. Our clinic is thriving. Trevin is slowly being able to cut back on his extra jobs. Most importantly he is practicing the kind of medicine he envisioned when he started out on the path to becoming a physician. Our practice has been able to stay true to our commitment to the community. We have really enjoyed being in a position where we can give back. This has included things like free sports physicals for high school athletes, partnering with Health4Heroes who support veterans and first responders, donations to the Jet Foundation for cancer patients in need, and most importantly making sure we support other small local businesses.
We still have a long way to go on our journey building our clinic but every step of the way we feel reassured that we are doing a good thing and providing a great service to the community.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hometown Family Health is a direct primary care family medicine clinic. Our focus is on restoring the doctor-patient relationship and creating a comfortable and community feel in medicine. Our patients pay a monthly membership fee ($75-$85) that covers all visits (sick or well), minor procedures, telehealth, text messaging, direct calls, and after hours urgent communication. We don’t bill insurance as it puts a barrier between patients and doctors but have worked to keep our memberships affordable. This model allows Dr. Cardon to practice in a more personal way. We are able to provide quality, convenient, and affordable primary care to our community.
We provide open. honest, and transparent medical care, Something that is not easy to find. Often times people wonder what the catch is or how we are able to provide such a great service at such a low cost. There is no catch this is simply the price and product of primary care when you remove insurance from it.
We are proud to be part of the community we grew up in and as we grow hope to continue to become more involved.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Honestly, facebook moms groups. Most people who come to our office say they heard about us from something I posted in a local facebook moms group. We laugh and joke that with all the marketing we do our most successful marketing is completely free. Second to facebook would be from patients who are suggesting us to their friends and family. We continue to promote on social media and at community events knowing it sometimes can take a person ten times of seeing our name and remembering they wanted to find out more information before they actually reach out to ask those questions and enroll.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My business partner (Trevin) and I have been married for 13 years now. Before being business partners we were poor college students, young inexperienced parents, and a family surviving medical training. We met our sophomore year of college at BYU. Some mutual friends introduced us after finding out we would be living in the same apartment building that year. Trevin helped me change the license plates on my new car and I invited him over for dinner to say thanks (what college boy doesn’t like food). He agreed but then the next day cancelled on me (turns out his little sister was in town for a volleyball tournament but he didn’t tell me the reason until months later). He then asked me out the following week. We went on a hike, to the same spot we later got engaged at. After that hike the rest was history. During the second semester of that year we took a big risk. We were both still taking general ed classes and filled our schedules with the same classes. We even bought one set of books to share. I am forever glad we didn’t break up that semester. We were engaged later that semester and got married that summer. We didn’t actually become business partners until about two years ago as we started Hometown Family Health. It has certainly been an adventure but has been so much fun working with my best friend every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hometownfamilyhealth.com/
- Instagram: @hometown_family_health
- Facebook: @HometownFamilyHealth
Image Credits
Jacey Biermann