Why I Left Insurance Medicine — And What I Built Instead

I left insurance medicine five years ago. Not because I didn't care about patients. Because I cared too much to keep practicing that way.

The math didn't work. I was seeing 30 patients a day. Seven minutes each. That's what the system demands when insurance sets the reimbursement rates and administrators set the productivity quotas. Seven minutes to take a history, examine the patient, document everything for legal and billing, and create a treatment plan.

You can't practice real medicine in seven minutes. You can match symptoms to prescriptions. You can order a standard lab panel and call it good. But you can't investigate. You can't think. You can't actually figure out why someone is falling apart.

I watched patients cycle back through the ER because their chronic problems were never addressed upstream. I watched good doctors burn out and leave medicine entirely. And I asked myself: what would medicine look like if I actually had time to practice it?

So I built it.

The Problem With How Medicine Works Right Now

The reality: most primary care doctors in the insurance world are seeing 25 to 35 patients a day. They're not bad doctors. Most of them went into medicine for the same reasons I did — they want to help people. But they're drowning in paperwork, prior authorizations, and productivity quotas set by administrators who've never touched a patient.

When you see 30 people in a day, each person gets about seven to twelve minutes. That's the national average. Seven minutes. You can barely take a history in seven minutes, let alone investigate anything complex.

So what happens? You walk in with fatigue. They check a CBC, maybe a TSH. Everything's "in range." They tell you it's stress. Maybe offer an antidepressant. You leave with a copay and a vague sense that nobody actually heard you.

I lived this from the other side. I spent years in emergency medicine watching the same patients cycle back through the ER because their chronic problems were never actually addressed upstream. The ER was being used as primary care — not because people wanted to be there, but because the system had failed them everywhere else.

That's when I started asking a different question. Not "how do I see more patients?" but "what would medicine look like if I actually had time to practice it?"

What I Built at Rooted Health

The model is straightforward. You pay a monthly membership fee directly. No insurance company in the middle. No copays. No deductibles. No surprise bills. No fighting with an adjuster about whether a lab is "medically necessary."

Patients come to Rooted Health Clinic from Temple, Killeen, Georgetown, Belton, and throughout Central Texas for this kind of care. Here's what that looks like:

• Adults: $245/month

• Seniors (65+): $225/month

• Kids (0-17): $185/month

For that, you get same-day or next-day appointments when you need them. Appointments that run 30 to 60 minutes because that's how long it takes to actually do the job right. Discounted labs. Medications without the insurance markup. And when you reach out to the clinic, you get a same-day response — not a phone tree, not a 3-5 business day callback.

Think of it like this. Instead of paying premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance to an insurance company — and still getting seven-minute appointments — you pay me directly and get a doctor who actually has time to figure things out.

I see eight to ten patients a day instead of thirty. That changes everything.

Why Time Changes Everything

This is a pattern I see every week — often with patients who've driven from Temple, Killeen, or elsewhere in Central Texas. Someone middle-aged walks in — not the type to complain. They've been dealing with fatigue and weight gain for a couple of years. Their previous doctor checked basic labs. Everything was "normal." Case closed.

When they sit down with me, we talk for about 45 minutes. Life stuff first — how's work, what's the family up to, are you staying busy. Then we get into the clinical picture. I ask questions their previous doctor never had time to ask. Sleep quality. Stress levels. What they're eating. How their energy fluctuates through the day. Family history.

Then we start with labs — metabolic markers and an expanded thyroid panel. Free T3, free T4, total T3, total T4, TSH. That's my baseline for everybody. We try not to hammer patients with a thousand dollars in labs on day one. Start with what's most likely to explain the symptoms, and if something doesn't add up, we go deeper.

This is a common pattern. The expanded thyroid tells the story. TSH is technically "in range," but free T3 is low. The body isn't converting thyroid hormone efficiently. That's something a basic TSH alone would never catch.

In a seven-minute appointment, this patient gets told they're fine. In a 45-minute appointment where I have time to listen, ask the right questions, and run the right labs — we find the actual problem. That's not a knock on their previous doctor. It's a knock on the system that gives that doctor seven minutes.

The Math Actually Works

I hear this all the time: "But my insurance already covers my primary care. Why would I pay out of pocket?"

Fair question. Let's look at it honestly.

Even with "good" insurance, most people are paying $500 to $800 a month in premiums — sometimes more. Then there's the deductible: $2,000 to $6,000 a year before insurance even kicks in. Copays on top of that. Coinsurance. Surprise bills that show up six weeks later for something you thought was covered.

After all of that money, you still get seven-minute appointments and three-week wait times. You're paying for access to a system, not access to care.

For $245 a month — about eight bucks a day — you get appointments with no copays, visits that are long enough to actually accomplish something, discounted labs, and zero surprise bills. Ever.

Does that mean you ditch insurance entirely? No. I recommend most of my patients keep a high-deductible plan for catastrophic stuff — hospitalization, surgery, things like that. But for the ongoing relationship with a primary care doctor who's actually digging into your health — this model is better medicine at a better price.

How I Actually Practice

I'm not just a primary care doctor who takes longer appointments. I trained in functional medicine because I got tired of managing symptoms without ever asking why they were there in the first place.

When you come to Rooted Health, we don't just treat what's on the surface. We investigate the systems underneath. I think about health in tiers.

The foundation is metabolic health — including thyroid — gut health, and your stress response system. That's where most chronic disease starts. Fix the foundation and the body starts to sort itself out.

If the foundation doesn't explain everything, we go deeper. Hormones. Environmental exposures. Chronic infections. Toxin burden.

And for the complex cases — the ones who've been everywhere and tried everything — we dig into cellular-level function. Mitochondria. Genetics. Structural issues.

The point is, we have time to actually do this. In the insurance system, there's no way to work through a three-tier clinical framework in seven-minute visits spaced months apart. The system isn't built for it. The membership model is.

Who This Works Best For

The membership model isn't for everybody. If you're healthy, rarely see a doctor, and just need someone for the occasional strep test, you might not need this level of care.

But if you're dealing with chronic health issues that haven't improved with conventional care — fatigue, hormonal problems, autoimmune conditions, gut issues, metabolic dysfunction — this model was built for you. If you're tired of being rushed through appointments. If you want a doctor who actually knows your history. If you want transparency — flat monthly fee, no games, no surprises.

People with complex chronic illness need this kind of medicine. You can't unravel years of dysfunction in seven-minute appointments every three months. It takes time, follow-up, and a doctor who's paying attention to the whole picture.

What This Model Is Not

Let me be clear about a few things.

We don't accept insurance for primary care. That's the whole point — removing the middleman so I can actually practice medicine the way it should be practiced.

We're not a replacement for catastrophic coverage. If you need surgery or end up in the hospital, you want insurance for that.

And we're not magic. Functional medicine works, but it takes participation. I'm the guide. You have to do the work. But I'll be right there with you, and I'll have time to actually help.

Why Central Texas Needs This

Texas is booming. Central Texas especially. But access to good primary care is getting worse, not better. Doctors are leaving the insurance system — or leaving medicine entirely — because they can't practice under the administrative burden. Wait times for new patients are four to six weeks in most clinics. Appointment times keep shrinking.

If you're in Salado, Temple, Belton, Harker Heights, Killeen, or anywhere in Bell County — you deserve better than what the current system is offering. A direct relationship between doctor and patient, with no middleman extracting value and creating friction. That's what medicine is supposed to look like.

If Any of This Sounds Familiar

I left the insurance system because I couldn't practice real medicine inside it. I built Rooted Health Clinic so I could spend time with patients, actually investigate what's going on, and help people get better — not just managed.

If you're tired of being rushed, tired of managing symptoms instead of finding answers, and ready for a doctor who has time to listen — that's exactly what we do.

Give us a call at 254-780-0023 or visit rootedhealthclinic.com to set up a conversation.

Rooted Health Clinic — Salado, TX