Episode 23: What Your Practice Is Actually Worth — Teona Ducre on Concierge Recruiting, Management Companies, and the Exit Nobody Plans For

Erik and Davin have had a lot of physicians on this show. This week they have someone who talks to physicians all day long — from the other side of the table.Teona Ducre is a physician recruiter with Pinnacle Health Group, specializing in concierge, direct primary care, and membership practices. She screens seven to ten doctors a day across primary care, urology, rheumatology, and gastroenterology, and works markets from Texas and Kansas to Chicago, California, and the UAE.Ask a physician what their practice is worth and you'll usually hear about the build-out, the equipment, the years. Teona's answer is much shorter: your patient panel. Almost nothing else counts.She didn't arrive here through healthcare. She was a journalist, then spent eleven years in education. Then, on April Fool's Day 2016, at 41 and a single mother of two teenagers, she was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer — when the five-year survival rate was seven percent. The advocacy work she took up afterward put her in rooms full of physicians, and a recruiting firm owner noticed. Ten years out, she screens candidates for compassion and connection as hard as she screens for clinical skill, because she has been on the other side of that exam room.In this episodeJournalism, then eleven years teaching, then a stage 3 diagnosis — and how advocacy turned into a recruiting careerWhat being the patient permanently changed about how she screens physiciansThe numbers behind the shift: concierge and DPC practices grew more than 80% between 2018 and 2023, with physicians entering the model up nearly as much. "This isn't a niche market anymore."Why employers — airlines, big-box retail, car dealerships — are now buying direct primary care for their staffSpecialty direct care on the rise: the Chicago endocrinologist who flipped to a membership model and kept about 70% of his panelThe compensation conversation nobody has in medical school: RVUs vs. income guarantee vs. straight salary, and the answer she hears most ("I have no idea what you're talking about")The 1,800–2,000 patient panel rule of thumb for converting to concierge — and when it still works with lessHow to vet a management company: track record, panel-growth forecast, a specific marketing plan, territory, and the 10–12% vs. 15–20% fee questionDavin on his own exit from a health system — the sabbatical year, and why a physical office mattered more than he expectedSuccession planning from day one, and the question that reframes it: would you buy your own practice today?What a valuation actually looks at — subscription rate times panel, 7–10% expected attrition, real estate in, furniture and equipment essentially outWhat she's seeing from private equity in functional and integrative medicine, and why more fellows are heading into private practiceLongevity medicine abroad — her UAE client, and the thought she had in Portugal after treatmentAbout Teona DucrePhysician recruiter with Pinnacle Health Group, the Atlanta-based national search firm, focused on concierge, direct primary care, and membership practices. A ten-year survivor of stage 3 pancreatic cancer and an advocate with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, she came to healthcare recruiting by way of journalism and more than a decade in education. She writes an ongoing LinkedIn series on the business of concierge medicine and direct primary care.LinksTeona Ducre on LinkedIn — her concierge and DPC seriesPinnacle Health Group