Carolinas DPC Summit
Carolinas DPC Summit
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2026
Agenda
7:30 - 8:00 AM
Light breakfast served
8:00 AM
Welcome and housekeeping
8:05 - 8:55 AM
Mindset: Overcoming Fear, Finding Mentorship
Amanda Pennington, MD
9:00 - 9:50 AM
Entrepreneurial Operating System/ What's Your Exit Strategy?
Jessica Kaiser Mendelsohn, MD
10:00 - 10:50 AM
Political Landscape of DPC
Josh J. Umbehr, MD and Jerome B. Aya-Ay, MD
11:00 - 11:40 AM
Corporate and Employer Contract Pitfalls and Red Flags
Shaunna Sanders, Esq., MBA
11:50 AM - 12:20 PM
Employer Benefits
Cristy Gupton
12:25 - 12:30 PM
Presentation from US Bank
12:30 - 1:30 PM
Lunch with Q&A and social time
1:35 - 2:25 PM
Know Your Numbers
Cass Ward, CPA
2:30 - 3:20 PM
Taxes / Real Estate
Nate Goodman, CPA and Jessica Mendelsohn, MD
3:30 - 4:20 PM
Building an Employer Pipeline for DPC
Anne Gonzalez, MD
4:20 - 4:30 PM
Close
4:30 - 5:30 PM
Special Presentation OPTIONAL
Jessica Kaiser Mendelsohn, MD
Featured Speakers
Physicians and experts who have built, scaled, and protected successful DPC practices.
Amanda Pennington, MD
Dr. Pennington is a board-certified family physician with more than 30 years of experience and a graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina. She is the founder of Pennington Primary Care in Rock Hill, SC, a direct primary care. She is also a local voice for DPC and has spoken about the model on WRHI Radio.
Jessica Kaiser Mendelsohn, MD
Dr. Mendelsohn is a family physician with over 13 years of experience in family medicine and hospice care. In 2019, she left hospital-based practice to open New South Family Medicine, a direct primary care practice in Fort Mill, SC.
Josh J. Umbehr, MD
Dr. Umbehr is the founder of AtlasMD in Wichita, Kansas, and one of the most recognized pioneers of the direct primary care movement. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on DPC and speaks nationally on how membership medicine can make care more affordable and accessible.
Jerome B. Aya-Ay, MD
Dr. Aya-Ay is a board-certified family physician focused on preventive care and lifestyle medicine. He is co-founder of Palmetto Proactive Healthcare, a direct primary care practice with five locations across South Carolina. He also serves as an assistant professor of family medicine at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Carolinas.
Shaunna Sanders, Esq., MBA
Shaunna is an attorney with Proviso Legal and serves as CFO and CMO of Voyage Clinics. With both a law degree and an MBA, she helps physicians understand the legal and financial side of contracts, partnerships, and practice growth.
Cristy Gupton
Cristy is the founder of Custom Benefits Solutions in Morganton, NC, and a Charter Certified Health Rosetta Adviser. She helps employers design smarter, more transparent health benefits, often built around direct primary care. She was named one of EBA’s Top Women in Benefits Advising in 2018 and 2020.
Cass Ward, CPA
Cass is a CPA, fractional CFO, and Consulting Partner at Nexagy, with more than 20 years of experience as a CFO and CEO. He is the author of How Much Does It Cost to Make a Donut? and teaches at Queens University’s McColl School of Business, helping business owners understand the numbers behind their decisions.
Nate Goodman, CPA
Nate is a CPA who advises physicians on tax planning and real estate strategy. He helps practice owners keep more of what they earn and make confident financial decisions as their practices grow.
Anne Gonzalez, MD
Dr. Gonzalez is the co-founder of Emerald Health Direct Primary Care, with locations in Hickory and Morganton, NC, where she offers longer visits, direct access, and transparent pricing. She also founded Harmony Ops CRM for DPC, helping other physicians build and grow successful direct primary care practices.
Sponsors
LUNCH SPONSOR
US Bank
U.S. Bank offers banking built for healthcare practice owners, from business checking and lending to financing for opening or growing a practice.
LUNCH SPONSOR
US Bank
U.S. Bank offers banking built for healthcare practice owners, from business checking and lending to financing for opening or growing a practice.
Virtuous Benefits
Virtuous Benefits is a DPC owned benefits company that educates DPC physicians across the country on the best ways to work with their local employer groups helping them grow their practices faster. VBDPC healthCARE insurance plans remove the greed from health insurance for businesses by creating DPC driven Open Access health plans with no network restrictions!
DINNER SPONSOR
DINNER SPONSOR
Virtuous Benefits
Virtuous Benefits is a DPC owned benefits company that educates DPC physicians across the country on the best ways to work with their local employer groups helping them grow their practices faster. VBDPC healthCARE insurance plans remove the greed from health insurance for businesses by creating DPC driven Open Access health plans with no network restrictions!
Goodman CPA
A team that already gets Direct Care - one that understands how your practice actually makes money, and helps you build it, grow it, and keep more of what you earn.
BREAKFAST SPONSOR
Ardor Commercial Advisors
At Ardor Commercial Advisors, we understand that buying or selling commercial property is a significant step in your journey. We are more than just your agents; we are your lifelong partners, committed to guiding you through every transaction and beyond.
Lantern Health
Lantern Health is a Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice providing personalized and comprehensive primary care services to individuals, families, and employers at two locations in Asheville.
Harmony Ops CRM for DPC
A CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) built for DPC by a DPC doctor. We provide systems, marketing and growth support for DPC practices, helping physicians attract patients and grow with less effort and guesswork.
New South Family Medicine
Located in the heart of Fort Mill, SC, we combine the science of modern medicine with the warmth of a neighborhood clinic. We’re redefining healthcare by offering Direct Primary Care (DPC) and MedSpa services under one roof - making it easy for you to feel your best, inside and out.
Magic, Pixie Dust, and Miracles
Shane Purcell, MD
The book is written from the DPC physician perspective to learn how to approach employers, work with them and their benefits advisors. In addition, there are specific sections for employers and benefits advisors to learn about DPC and how, together, all three groups can work to achieve some magic and miracles.
Prenuvo
Prenuvo is a proactive healthcare company offering full-body MRI scans designed to help provide a look at multiple organ systems in under an hour. Every scan is read by board-certified radiologists. Prenuvo works with direct primary cares building practices around longer relationships and richer baseline data. Prenuvo's mission is to enable earlier identification of potential conditions and a deeper understanding of human health and aging.
Thea Health
Thea Health lets direct primary care doctors send curbside consults to specialists in more than 125 specialty and subspecialty areas without leaving the patient's chart. Answers usually come back within hours and one flat monthly fee covers unlimited specialist consults.
Sunlight Health
Sunlight Health is a benefit plan that rewards employers for choosing direct primary care and helps employees spend their healthcare dollars wisely with guidance from their DPC physician. Members and their families pay $0 out of pocket when they use their DPC, community pharmacies, and the plan’s built-in guidance toward high-quality care.
Tiger Diagnostics Laboratory
TIGER Diagnostics is built to be better. We know that behind every test is a real person, and delivering timely and accurate results is essential to quality care.
DPC Marketing Playbook
Douglas Farrago, MD
A practical, no-fluff walkthrough of what's working right now for physicians who built thriving DPC practices with no ad budget, no marketing degree, and no in-house team.
Thank you for attending!
Please be sure to complete the Post-Summit survey here.
We'll take all of your feedback to improve and plan a great summit for next year.
Questions? Email us at [email protected]
© 2026 Carolinas Direct Primary Care Summit