Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Rebecca Berens.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I first became interested in medicine when my grandmother died at a young age of ovarian cancer. I studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology and did research while at Rice University, and I thought I would go into a career of cancer research, but after shadowing a family physician I realized how many health problems can be caught early enough to cure or prevented entirely by a good primary care physician. After completing medical school at Baylor College of Medicine here in Houston and rotating through all of the medical specialties, I confirmed that family medicine was right for me and would help me reach my goal of keeping families healthy.
I graduated from my family medicine residency in Washington, DC in 2016 and once I was practicing on my own, I quickly became frustrated with how the traditional healthcare system limited my ability to provide the high standard of care that my patients deserved. I was always overbooked and given very little time with patients for appointments. I felt like all I had time to do was refill medication and order tests and referrals rather than spending time getting to know patients well to understand the root of their health concerns. This was unsatisfying for me and for all of my patients, but especially for uninsured patients and patients with high deductibles who were paying a lot of money out of pocket for just a few minutes with me. I did not feel I was providing the value that I was capable of.
After seeing a full day of patients, I then had to spend a lot of time on administrative work to satisfy insurance company requirements. Between prior authorizations and making sure to click the correct checkboxes in the electronic medical record- I was spending hours after work doing things that helped the insurance company but did not benefit my patients’ health in any way, meanwhile taking away my time with my family and for my own self-care. I became burned out very quickly by the injustice of a system that serves insurance companies but not patients, and harms patients and doctors in the process.
It wasn’t until I had my first child that I finally had the strength to leave that system. In the course of my own postpartum and breastfeeding journey I sought additional education and became an international board-certified lactation consultant, and I knew that with these skills I could create a practice that would provide more thorough and holistic postpartum and lactation support to new families as well as full-service primary care to provide high-value care to all, regardless of insurance status.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I opened my practice in January, 2020, having no idea of the pandemic that would shortly follow! I had prepared myself with a part time job in a clinic to help support the practice while I was building it, but I quickly lost this job as clinics shut down to in-person visits. In mid-March the same week that my son’s daycare shut down for the first time, I also learned that I was pregnant with our second child! We made the decision to pull my son out of daycare entirely until I was out of my first trimester and had better access to personal protective equipment when I returned to practice, so I spent almost 3 months staying home with my son and working on building the practice and offering virtual visits during his naps.
I lost a lot of the early momentum that I had built when I first opened during that time so by mid-year I felt like I was starting back from square one. The pandemic also made it harder to get out and meet other health professionals and small business owners in the community, so I had to be creative to find virtual ways to meet new people and reach those patients that I could help. I had no background in business, marketing, or networking, and I am quite shy, so it was a big learning curve for me and there was a lot of trial and error as I figured out what worked and what did not. Even now over 18 months into owning this practice, I am still learning from mistakes every day!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Vida Family Medicine is a direct primary care practice that provides affordable, accessible, personalized primary care services to individuals, families, and small businesses. We operate under a membership model that allows us to keep patients’ costs low with no surprise medical bills, while also providing unparalleled direct access to their personal physician. We also offer concierge in-home fourth trimester care for new parents and their babies as well as lactation support.
Unlike many primary care practices where each doctor may see thousands of patients each year, I limit my panel of patients to just a few hundred. This allows me to have same or next day availability in most cases so that patients can see their actual doctor when they are sick, rather than paying hundreds of dollars to go to an unknown provider in an urgent care or emergency room. I spend more time with patients at their visits so that I can get to know them well and better understand their health concerns and lifestyle. This allows me to create a more personalized plan for each patient.
My practice tends to attract entrepreneurs and their families who are looking for a more cost-effective and personalized approach to healthcare. I love the relationships that I am able to form with these families over time. In the past it was common for most families to have a family doctor and to see the same doctor throughout their life, but this has become less and less common as the healthcare system has changed to a very transactional model built around insurance claims. In my practice I can work directly with patients without worrying about what insurance will or won’t cover, so we are able to focus on what really matters to the patient. The patient never has to worry about getting a surprise bill from me later because something was not covered, and I work hard to find affordable, transparent resources for patients if they need services that I am not able to provide in my office. By helping patients navigate the healthcare system and building a strong physician-patient relationship, patients are able to not only save money on healthcare, but more importantly have a better healthcare experience that addresses their specific needs.
We also attract many first-time parents and parents who have experienced breastfeeding difficulties in the past who are looking for additional support to reach their breastfeeding goals. As a first-time mother, I struggled with my own breastfeeding difficulties, so I can empathize with what new parents are going through- not to mention the sleep deprivation and other postpartum symptoms that no one talks about! I love to meet with parents in the prenatal period to help them feel more confident and better prepared for the postpartum period, then I can continue to offer support throughout the fourth trimester so that are not having to face these challenges alone.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love that Houston is such an incredibly diverse city- the food and cultural experiences from every culture around the world are fantastic! There are so many different parts of the city to visit and explore and all are very different, but the people are always friendly and welcoming.
The weather in Houston is crazy and while I love the mild winters, the hot, humid summers and storms with flooding are definitely not my favorite!
Pricing:
- Individual primary care memberships start at $99/month, and family memberships start at $149/month
Contact Info:
- Email: info@vidafamilydpc.com
- Website: www.vidafamilydpc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vidafamilymedicine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vidafamilymedicine
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPdk9iRAqyGNbNgXzN0s8PQ
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/vida-family-medicine-houston
Image Credits
Kitty Sanchez Photography
