Why Patients Will Pay $10,000 Cash for Surgery with Dr. Tek Fish, DPM

Some patients are paying $10,000 cash for surgery their insurance would cover.Dr. Tek Fish, DPM has friends with clinics across the country doing the same. And he's been quietly building this into his own practice for the last five years.Why?Because at a practice management conference five years ago, he heard a line that changed how he thought about the next 20 years of his career:"How much you get paid today by insurance is the most you will ever get paid for the rest of your career."Reimbursements have dropped every single year for the last five years. So Dr. Fish stopped waiting for the system to fix itself. He bought one machine, did the math on what one cash patient a month would deliver, and started rebuilding his clinic around a hybrid model.In this conversation with host Rakesh Reddy, Dr. Fish breaks down the economics, the pricing rule he uses for every cash-pay service, and the mindset shifts most doctors need to make before the math stops working entirely.What you'll learn:- Why patients pay $10,000 cash for surgery their insurance would cover (and the math from the patient's side that makes it rational)- Why insurance reimbursements keep dropping and what that means for solo practitioners- The first machine to buy if you want to start cash pay- The 80/50 pricing rule: 80% gross profit, 50% net profit- Why he charges the same prices in Portland that he'd charge in Detroit- "Don't decide for the patient if they can afford it" and why this single sentence changes everything- Why he spent $700,000 on coaching, books, and conferences in five years- "Money is a tool. Use it." The hard truth most owners refuse to accept- What practices will thrive over the next 5 years and which ones won'tWhether you're a doctor stuck on insurance reimbursements, a practice owner considering a hybrid model, or anyone curious about the real economics of running a clinic in 2026, this is the unfiltered playbook.Connect with Dr. Tek Fish, DPM: Website: https://www.cloverpodiatry.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloverpodiatry/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tek-fish-a6557137b/