Start your own DPC practice. Keep your job.
Direct primary care lets you practice on your terms, on a membership your patients pay you directly. Openwell launches your independent practice and gives you the operating system to run it, so you can go from employed to your own panel. Reversible. Stay employed while you start.
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Free · takes minutes · orientation, not legal advice
The operating system, built for direct primary care.
The practice you would run if the busywork ran itself. You keep the panel, the medicine, and the relationship. The system does the rest.
- Self-enrollment and recurring membership billing
- Employer-group enrollment
- Plan tiers
- Text-first access
- Panel, MRR, and churn dashboards
Asked by every physician who got this far.
Can I start a DPC practice while staying employed?
Yes. Launching on the side is common and runs alongside your current job in roughly ten hours a week. You keep your salary while the practice proves itself, it is reversible, and you can cancel anytime.
Does my contract allow me to start my own practice?
The free check reads your employment terms in plain language: whether you can start a side practice now, or need to wait out a notice period first. A red result is an honest not yet, with the date you can revisit. It is a directional read based on your answers and common contract patterns, not legal advice, so have your specific agreement reviewed by counsel before acting.
What if my contract says no?
We will connect you with a network of healthcare attorneys who can review your contract and your situation in more depth. Book a time with us and we will make the introduction.
Will patients pay cash for direct primary care?
Direct primary care is built on exactly that: members pay your practice directly on a monthly membership, with no insurance in the room. Direct, membership, and cash-pay practices are among the fastest-growing in medicine.
Does the OS handle membership billing?
That is its backbone for DPC: self-enrollment, recurring membership billing, employer-group enrollment, plan tiers, text-first access, and the panel, MRR, and churn dashboards that tell you where you stand. It is the product vision we are building and testing with founding clinical advisors, and you watch it run on demo patients before you go live.
Do I need to form a company first?
No. We set up your physician-owned entity for you, structured to your state's rules, along with the rest of the launch checklist.
Who handles malpractice insurance?
It is handled as part of activation. Your practice holds its own policy through a licensed broker, so the carrier bears the risk and Openwell coordinates it without being your insurer.
Is the contract check legal advice?
No. The contract check is a tool that gives a directional read based on your answers and common contract patterns. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship, so have your specific agreement reviewed by counsel before acting.
Not ready to check? Start with the playbooks.
The guides we wish every employed physician had before they thought about going independent. Free. No pitch.
Find out where you stand.
The contract check is free and takes minutes. Stay employed while you find out.
Talk to Ji Kim, Openwell's co-founder and COO, about what launching your practice actually takes.
Book a call
Orientation, not legal advice · every output routes to independent counsel