Direct Primary Care: Fixing Healthcare In The Hudson Valley | Your Wellness Path with Amy Bryson, NP

We are good. Okay. Hey everybody, Ed Weeks Jr. Welcome back to another episode of the Weeks Weekly, and I'm super excited this week, and you should be too because you're not just going to hear from me this week. Bringing a guest on who's doing some really cool dynamic things in the Hudson Valley. Uh, as you see, she's here with me now, Amy Bryson. She's a nurse practitioner and she's the owner of Your Wellness Path. Amy, welcome. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

For sure. Amy, quick question. I didn't want to mess this up, so I'm just going to ask you, where are you actually located in Dutchess County?

I am in Dover Plains, New York.

Dover Plains. For all you that do know, you know that's eastern, but if you don't, now you do know it's eastern Dutchess County. Beautiful area, uh, and I'm excited to talk about what you have going on out there, Amy. So without further ado, let's Let's just dive right into it. Why are we here? Why are we having this conversation? We've had several that weren't on our podcast, but what do you have going on out there, Amy?

Yeah, so at Your Wellness Path here, we are redefining healthcare through direct primary care. So patients pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited access, no copays, no long, They get more personal patient visits. There's no phone trees. They get direct access to me. We're cutting out the middleman. We're cutting out— we're cutting out the insurance bureaucracy where you're waiting in the waiting room for hours because you're being piled in to get in to see your provider. You're not waiting all that time in the waiting room for a 5-minute visit, and you get to sit down with your provider and actually have conversations. When you bring up an additional issue, you're not being told, oh, you have to go wait and reschedule to come and see me. And then that rescheduling is 6 months out. You get to see me right then and there, talk about all of your issues. And it's affordable and accessible to the everyday person. And then additionally, I have an exciting thing that I have a partnership with another company. And we're helping small businesses and groups and members of organizations have affordable full-spectrum healthcare and health insurance at a fraction of the marketplace costs. So saving up to 20 to 40% and sometimes even more on their health insurance. So overall, bringing humanity back to healthcare.

It's amazing because as you were talking, I'm like, man, this sounds super expensive, but we're actually saying we're super affordable. 20 to 40% is a massive savings, but I think most importantly, personalized.

Yes.

Good quality health. I don't want to use the term because I don't use it, but obviously we're, we're definitely bringing back like that, that personalized healthcare, which so many are— if anyone has been in any of the situations that are in Dutchess County, uh, or beyond, uh, it's much more a warehouse mentality, and that's, that's painful sometimes. So thank you. I think this is just one of the most amazing things that's happening, and I hope this goes, uh, and gets a lot bigger and catches on for sure. Uh, talk to me a little bit about— I don't want to get into pricing because I think if somebody's generally interested in this, uh, they should reach out because there's not one price that could literally be for everybody. I think you'll be— give me a range, how's that? That's probably more appropriate.

Yeah. So, well, for an individual, it's, well, it's less than your— less than a cost of your cell phone bill. Let's put it that way. So definitely less than the cost of your cell phone bill, and you're getting all of this personalized care. And additionally, we have a pharmacy that we work with. So a lot of your generic medications are included. So somebody who is already on multiple medications, just joining, you're going to be saving lots of money on that. So a range for an individual around $80 or less, especially if you're part of a larger group. And then for like a family and multiple, multiple people in that family group, you start having the, again, the discounts when you have multiple people joining within that family.

It's amazing. So I want to bring up an incident that just happened recently in my family and I just Just so people have an understanding, right? So I have a couple of older kids. Uh, my daughter sliced her hand open, right? So she took hours to get— and we had to go— first we were going to go to the urgent care. I shouldn't say we because my wife did it. They were going to go to the urgent care, and then they ended up in the, the actual ER, and it took, I think, 5 hours before she got 2 stitches. Is that something in your scenario that we can avoid most of that?

Yep, absolutely. I have stitches, suture material, everything right here in the office. So somebody, one of my patients who's already with me or has been with me, they could just shoot me a text message. And I mean, you know, Saturday night I might not be here, but if I'm here and I'm available, you just shoot me a text message and I am able to pop those sutures in for you, no problem. And then you schedule follow-up with me and I can take those out and, you know, yeah, that's not a problem. Absolutely.

That right there alone to me is like, that makes it worth it. Yeah. Obviously you talked about the pharmacy benefit, which again can be humongous, and all these pieces that come together. It's like, my question to you is, why do you think more people aren't doing this? Is it new new, or is it just they're kind of in this? I'm not knocking any other healthcare, just looking at it from your perspective of Why isn't this something that is, or is it something now that may actually start to gain more roots and traction and be more available?

Yeah, I think not a lot of people know about it being out there. It's growing in the Hudson Valley area. There's maybe only 3 other direct primary cares, and that is within the whole Hudson Valley area. And we keep our, our panels on the small side so that way we can provide the care that we need to. So in a traditional primary care office, like the big names, a provider will have 3,000, 4,000 patients. I keep my panel no more than 300 patients. So this way I can provide that personal care to everybody. Um, and so, you know, and, and so if there's only you know, 4 or so primary care, direct primary cares in the area, you know, we're not able to, you know, take care of all that, uh, of everybody in the Hudson Valley. But I also think that there's not that many, it's not very well aware. Um, so it's just getting the awareness out to everybody. And also people think it's a concierge medicine. So something that's only affordable to the upper, upper class. And so So I don't think people realize that it's affordable to the general public.

Which is awesome. Thank God.

Yes.

Definitely need that, especially what we just witnessed is what's going on. Uh, you know, I guess we passed something now, so the government is back functioning, but, uh, that's a band-aid until the 30th, right? There are some cool— you have some other updates that are coming in the new year, correct?

Yes. Yeah.

Jumping the gun on that? I don't know. We don't have to cover it, but I thought it was something that That would be beneficial for people to know.

Yes. Yeah. So if you have an HSA starting in the new year, the HSA can cover DPC fees. So the government wasn't really covering it in the past. There was a lot of like, is it covered? Is it not covered? But starting January 1st, 2026, DPC fees will be covered under your HSA, up to $150. And we are well below that at Your Wellness Path.

So that's just, I mean, what an amazing— yeah, I think you're gonna probably get to your capacity pretty quick. A question for you, like, people are obviously gonna watch this, consume this, hear this. What is like, is there anything like, are you— I know that you have a— is it a small business focus? Is it individual? Like, what is your focus? Like, just curious of what that is for your ideal patient profile. How's that? That's—

yeah, because I do a lot of functional-based medicine, like, I— and I think that that's kind of where we go with direct primary care because we don't like to just throw medicine at patients and give them the, you know, give them the boot. Like, you know, we like to take a look at our patient and actually take the time to explain to a patient what's What's going on? Look at your labs. Hey, what else is going on? Hey, you have high blood pressure. Well, you know, do you have obstructive sleep apnea? Do you have a problem with your kidneys? Do you have, you know, what else is going on? We tend to do more of that deep dive to work with you. You know, are you overweight? Can we work with that? What, you know, are these other things that we can work with with the patient? We're not just throwing pills. Yeah, Yes, we might have to treat you with medication, but then we're also working with you on all these other issues, 'cause we have that time to sit there and educate you, work with you to go build a comprehensive plan. So having that training, working with these patients, I mean, ideally that's every patient, you know, and that every patient can really truly benefit from that. A lot of the patients that tend to gravitate towards that is the middle-aged woman, or, you know, the 30s to 50-year-old woman, because I do also tend to have a lot of hormone replacement therapy that I do here, which I include in my primary care. I, you know, I do a lot of hormone replacement therapy for men and women, medical-assisted weight loss for men and women. You know, I treat and I do a lot of autoimmune therapy. Um, and, um, for patients who have autoimmune therapy issues, autoimmune issues, I help to balance that and work with them on that because these are all chronic issues that a lot of times can or could have been worked on working on their primary issues— diet, exercise, nutrition, environmental factors. So if I can help support them on that, they can start feeling better.

Awesome.

Yes.

Uh, other questions I get— I'm thinking here on the fly a little bit. You, outside of 300, doesn't seem like— hopefully it doesn't seem like too, too much. Is there, is there expansions plans? Is there needs for other healthcare providers who may be interested? Are there other pieces to this equation? I'm just thinking for, you know, I have a lot of medical contacts, as you know. I'm sure somebody will hear this or be interested in this. Are there plans for expansion beyond just your Dover Plains location?

Yes, absolutely. So my goals for expansion, um, yes, um, especially so one thing with like employer groups, like let's say we work with employer groups who want to sign on with this third-party administrator who gets this lower-cost insurance, um, and they, you know, happen to be in the Poughkeepsie area or, you know, on Western Dutchess, and I happen to have a large— a lot of people out there, um, my goals would be to have another location on Western Dutchess to— because that is a larger populated area, of course.

Sure.

And then yes, having another— having other nurse practitioners, um, service that area. Additionally, um, in In the meantime, or in addition, employer groups, any employer groups that sign on monthly and/or quarterly onsite health services. So like health wellness days. So me or whoever happens to be servicing that employer group would be going onsite to that employer day to go and do employee— employer wellness days, blood pressure checks, cholesterol checks, glucose checks for their employers. So this also helps to support the employer in showing that they care about their employees. It's just part of what a lot of DPCs do for their employer groups that sign on. So, and so even if I'm still in the Dover Plains area, I'm still able to service an employer group that is in Poughkeepsie until I'm actually in a Poughkeepsie location.

Gotcha. Cool. Love it. Question, how does somebody reach you? Is it email, website? What's the best, most convenient way on any— if looking for a new healthcare provider, uh, looking maybe to learn more about, uh, future NP, future locations, anything like that? What's the easiest way to get you?

Yes. Um, email, um, amy@yourwellnesspath.life. Y-O-U-R-W-E-L-L-N-E-S-S-L-I— wait, P-A-T-H dot life, L-I-F-E. Um, or you can, um, call me, uh, 845-842-1324.

How many times have providers given their phone number on it? I don't know. That's awesome. I will let you know that I will also include anybody who's listening and/or watching All that contact information will be readily available in the show notes and/or in the description. Uh, is there anything else that you want to cover in today's episode? I just didn't want to wait to the end to give people a way to get you in case people are having enough and just want to talk to you. Now they know how to get you. Anything else that you want to go over while you have the audience?

Yeah, let's see. Um, I'm really excited about the— this third-party administrator, I will say, because of how, how much of an affordability it is. Because when I was doing a cost comparison, and the cost comparison I was doing was in September before the rate increases, so the cost comparison for the, um, average market, average, average family coverage was about $2,000. With the Care Plus Direct, with the T— with DPC, So this is like not— so my fees are rolled into their program. So like you're not paying me separately. They, they put it all together, was about $1,500 for the whole family. And then for an individual on the marketplace was about $760. And then for an individual was about $500. So you're saving For an individual, about $250, and then for a family, you're saving over $6,000 a year.

So, which is amazing. And you can just have that if your employee offers HSA, you can just have that put in there and in the new year.

Well, yeah, but that's, that's, yeah, this one was just for insurance coverage and you don't even need to do the HSA with that.

Oh, really?

Insurance coverage. Yeah. And everything is on there. And they have also with that is they don't, have any deductible for any of their specialists. They don't have any deductible for surgeries, for hospital— hospitalizations. They— if you're using their care partner. Now, if you want to go outside of their care partner, there is a low deductible, but it's a lot lower than anything that's been available on the marketplace. It's like $3,000 versus like $6,000. So I'm like, oh, more people need to jump on that. I'm like, can I sign up? I can't.

I mean, that is— I didn't even think about the other aspects of that.

Yeah, yeah, crazy.

No deductible if it's inside of the group. That's— yeah, wow, affordable. And you're getting that next level. Yeah, when needed. That's—

Yeah, that's like for labs, for their pharmacy. Well, I think their pharmacy is a little bit different, but I have a pharmacy built in too. So they have a pharmacy, I have a pharmacy, like labs, imaging, everything. So it's, it's a great deal. And I'm like, I wanna sign up. Oh.

So basically we're coming with a better model. Now let's talk about the patient experience inside of your actual office.

Yeah.

Where, you know, everyone now is accustomed to a 9 o'clock in the morning appointment where you kind of get there at quarter to 9, and by the time you're seen, sometimes it's 10:15. What does that look like from a patient experience?

I don't have much of a waiting room because I don't let my patients wait more than 5 minutes. That's it. So, um, and that's whether your appointment's at 9 o'clock in the morning or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Um, because A, I schedule my patients appropriately and, um, because I can, yes, I have full control of my, my, uh, appointments. And B, I give the time for my patients, how they, how they much time they actually need. So if I know my patient is coming in for like, you know, a quick patient, like, you know, I'll have that discussion also, like, oh, are you coming in just for this? Great. You know, how much time do you think you need? Okay, we'll book it for that. Or, you know, if I know that they're going to come in and we're going to have like a lengthy discussion, then I know I'm going to have to book it for a longer time. I have the control over my patient schedule, um, and I'm gonna give the time to my patient for what they want to have that time for, um, and I'm, you know, I'm not booking out months in advance. Like, again, same and next day visit for a sick visit, within a week for a non-sick visit. So that's— yeah, um.

I don't know what else to say. I mean, to me, it's like, this, this is what's missing. This is what people need to experience and And hopefully lots of people can hear this and reach out because this is what's missing. Uh, honestly, let's, let's, let's be very honest. Before, where did you— what made you come into this model of, of, you know, past experience? What—

Oh yeah, yes, yes. So that's probably a really good story as to why that— why I'm here. Um, I— so I've been— I was— so the, the, the classic nurse practitioner, you know, You are a nurse first for, you know, you work as a nurse for a while. I graduated nursing school in 2006. So I've been in the healthcare field for quite a while. And so did that. I've been in a lot of different fields, ICU, OR, I've seen it all, seen your insides and outsides and in all different stages, pediatrics to geriatrics. I've been at it all. And then I graduated from NP school at Mount St. Mary's, so locally, in 2019, right before the pandemic. And then pandemic world, you know, so you're— I actually worked at the Javits Center for a little while, COVID there, and I saw a lot of the scared looks on people's faces and they just wanted to know A lot of them just had questions and wanted answers and education. And that was where primary care— where I saw like the need for primary care. So after things kind of settled a little bit, my first job outside of COVID was in primary care. And it was an FQHC, which is federally qualified health center. And that's basically a health clinic. It was a great experience. Um, as far as for primary care, but it is an in and out. You have to— you have 5 minutes with patients, come on, you gotta move. But they need the most— you need to give the most education. That's where you have to give the education to prevent these diseases, and unfortunately you're not given the time. Um, and it was heartbreaking for me because you burn out there because, you know, I wanted to give that education to patients. Um, and so then I moved on to an integrative medicine office, um, where I thought I was going to be able to give more time to my patients. Um, and, you know, I was more supported by one of the doctors, but then the other doctor told me I spent more time— too much time with my Medicaid patients. And I said, are you kidding me? Okay, goodbye. So here's my resignation. And I left and I started Your Wellness Path because I was not going to discriminate between one patient's insurance and another patient's insurance. Um, and so here I am.

And I love it because it's not the patient— it's, it's, it is the patient, it's not the coverage they have, right?

Right.

And the, the hope is, just listening to you, better patient outcomes, right, than is getting provided today in the current healthcare system that unfortunately we all have to experience. But now we don't. So I, I love your backstory. I think it makes a ton of sense and Interestingly enough, for some reason I went to the Javits Center to get jabbed. And here's the other place to do J&J, and I only wanted to do one dose. Yeah. So it's just funny to be like, oh wow, Javits. Yeah.

I was there, I was there before they were doing the vaccines. I was there when it was the, like, the hospital overflow. Yeah, that was, that was interesting. Yeah.

It's a much scarier time than people come to.

Yeah. Um, but it was, it was all a very interesting experience. You know, it's all good learning experiences. Every, every one of them are great learning experiences. And one of my goals, you know, part of it, even with Your Wellness Path, is to start giving back to the community with education also, you know, because at the end of the day, primary care is about education. So, and that's goals. I have big lofty goals here.

That benefits your patients. That benefits the Hudson Valley, Dutchess County, and wherever this can go. So yeah, I encourage anyone who's, uh, a little fed up— maybe not anyone, you might get really overwhelmed, Amy, but I guess at this point, hey, whatever it takes— like, uh, I definitely encourage you to, to reach out to Amy because I've had a number of conversations outside of just this podcast.

Yeah.

She's real, uh, she has the experience, and, you know, she probably gonna be a lot better than some of the things you're experiencing today. And again, I'm not knocking. I was in big pharma before. I dealt with a lot of doctors. They're probably all gonna send me nasty text messages.

Yeah.

Right? You know, I think there's some NPs in this world that may see this from a different perspective and inquire about, hey, how can we be part of this? Because I have a daughter who's a nurse and another one who's in nursing school right now. And I know that they're already getting frustrated in a model of, It's this way when they're like, no, I took an oath that is about the patient. Yes. So, uh, and I know doctors do too, but, you know, unfortunately business happens too. Yeah. So all that being said, Amy, is there anything else that you'd like to, to cover, share? Did we miss anything?

Um, no, I think, I think we're good. Yeah.

Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. I'm so excited to put this into the world and, and, and see what comes of it. The one thing I've asked you, I'm going to ask you and hold you accountable now, in the, the the public realm is definitely want to do a follow-up podcast with you because I think that we're going to talk about some of the growth and some of the things that have happened after this has taken place in the new year of 2026. So we'll look forward to that, Amy.

Sounds good. Yeah, I'm excited.

Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Thank you. You too. Yep.

Bye now.

Bye.

Okay.