While the Physician Associate (PA) profession was founded in 1967 to expand healthcare access and support physicians, today’s PAs are redefining healthcare in the United States through private practice and entrepreneurship. Across the country, they’re building their own clinics, launching telehealth companies and creating communities that impact tens of thousands of people.
At CM&F, we’ve had the privilege of featuring several of these trailblazers. Here, we bring their stories together to celebrate how these PAs are thriving in private practice.
How PAs Are Bridging Mental Health and Primary Care Through Private Practice
For Mercedes Dodge, PA-C, private practice innovation means combining two of healthcare’s most pressing needs: primary care and psychiatry. After years of experience in chronic disease management and pediatrics, she saw how often mental health needs were overlooked in primary care settings. Patients were showing up with untreated anxiety, depression or trauma because of a lack of psychiatrists available.
Dodge decided to change that. Today, she runs a telepsychiatry practice in Alaska, while also training primary care teams to integrate mental health screening and treatment into everyday visits. She teaches primary care providers how to screen patients using tools like the PHQ-9 and helps them gain the skills and confidence to have difficult but essential mental health conversations.
By creating a model that makes mental health care accessible within primary care, Dodge is proving that PAs can lead the charge in closing care gaps. Her work underscores how private practice isn’t just about independence. It’s about building systems that meet patient needs where they are.
Read more about bringing mental health care to primary care.
Why Compliance and Malpractice Protection Are Essential for PAs in Private Practice
For Chris Cannell, DMSc, PA-C, compliance is the base upon which a strong private practice is built. In his work, Cannell emphasizes that protecting your patients also means protecting yourself. Documentation, informed consent and communication aren the foundation of trust, risk management and long-term viability for your practice.
Cannell’s perspective comes from his blended focus on psychiatry and physical medicine. He has seen firsthand how gaps in communication or unclear documentation can escalate into liability concerns. His practical advice for PAs in private practice is to incorporate risk awareness into your daily workflow, rather than treating it as an afterthought.
While most PAs are naturally focused on on patient care, Cannell advises PAs he works with to build systems that stand up to scrutiny. For every PA in private practice, his perspective underscores the importance of liability coverage, strong boundaries and proactive patient communication.
Read more about compliance for PAs here
PA Entrepreneurs Leading Innovation: New Models of Care That Scale Nationwide
While most advanced practice providers set out to open a clinic, Kevin Riddleberger, MBA, PA-C, envisioned an entirely new healthcare delivery model. As co-founder of DispatchHealth, Riddleberger helped launch a company that brings urgent care to patients’ homes. His journey took him from scaling a local startup to becoming a national leader in mobile healthcare.
What began as a bold idea — that patients could receive hospital-level urgent care without leaving their homes — has now treated hundreds of thousands across the U.S. Riddleberger’s journey from PA to MBA to co-founder illustrates the possibilities available when clinical expertise is paired with business leadership.
For PAs considering private practice, Riddlebergery’s story proves you don’t have to stop at “one clinic” or “one town.” With vision, operational know-how and persistence, PAs can create systems that disrupt traditional healthcare and expand access on a national scale.
Riddleberger’s success underscores that PAs aren’t just vital in existing models of care. They can be the ones inventing the next model.
Read more about building DispatchHealth
How PAs Are Building Professional Communities and Empowering Colleagues
When Raquelle Akavan, DMSc, PA-C, started PA Moms, she simply wanted to create a supportive online space for colleagues balancing motherhood and professional life. What began as a small group quickly evolved into a network of over 20,000 PAs and became a trusted resource for advice, peer support and professional growth.
Akavan’s impact extends beyond the digital community. She’s a national voice for PA entrepreneurship, speaking at conferences and mentoring colleagues who want to launch businesses or step into leadership roles. Her dual focus of advancing the profession and supporting her peers has made her a community builder and advocate.
Akavan’s story highlights how PAs can even build businesses outside of private practice, such as creating infrastructure for colleagues. While some PAs build new care delivery models, Akavan built a model of support, advocacy and connection that strengthens the profession itself.
Read more about Akavan’s journey
Improving Post-Discharge Care: How PAs Are Using Telehealth to Prevent Readmissions
Every hospitalist knows the days immediately after a patient is hospital discharged are the most vulnerable. Missed follow-up, medication confusion or delayed care can send patients back through the ER doors. Caroline Hodge, MS, PA-C, MBA, saw this challenge repeatedly and decided to build a solution.
As co-founder of Dimer Health, Hodge designed a telehealth model that ensures patients don’t fall through the cracks after hospitalization. Dimer Health reduces readmissions and improves continuity of care by partnering with hospitals to proactively follow-up with patients after hospital discharge. The model supports patients, as well as health systems that struggle with the cost and burden of readmissions.
Hodge’s journey shows how a PA can use both clinical expertise and business savvy to create solutions that scale across healthcare systems.
Key Lessons from PA Entrepreneurs on Building a Successful Private Practice
These PA entrepreneur stories show how integral PAs are to building a viable healthcare system for the future. Here’s why:
- Innovation matters. Whether through telepsychiatry, mobile urgent care or transitional telehealth, these PAs are building new solutions to old problems.
- Risk awareness matters. As Cannell reminds us, independence must be built on strong systems of documentation, communication, and liability protection.
- Community matters. Akavan shows how peer networks can be as transformative as clinical innovations.
- Scale matters. From DispatchHealth to Dimer Health, PAs are proving they can expand their reach far beyond traditional settings.
How CM&F Group Supports PAs in Private Practice and Entrepreneurship
At CM&F Group, we’re proud to support PAs at every stage, from launching a solo practice to scaling a multi-state or even national company. These stories illustrate just how versatile, resilient and visionary PAs can be when given the tools and support to succeed.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can Physician Associates (PAs) open their own private practice? Yes, many PAs are successfully launching private practices, telehealth clinics, and wellness startups across the U.S. Depending on your state laws and collaborative requirements, PAs can own or co-own a practice and deliver care independently while maintaining compliance and proper liability coverage.
- Why is malpractice insurance important for PAs in private practice? Malpractice or professional liability insurance protects PAs from potential legal claims related to patient care. As PAs take on leadership and ownership roles, having the right coverage ensures protection from lawsuits, licensing board actions, and financial loss—allowing providers to focus on growing their practice with confidence.
- What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for PAs starting a business? The top challenges include navigating compliance regulations, building efficient documentation systems, and understanding business operations. However, the opportunities are immense—from combining mental health and primary care to creating new care delivery models like mobile urgent care or telehealth follow-ups. With the right preparation and protection, PAs can innovate and expand access to care nationwide.
Click here to learn more about how CM&F Group supports advanced practice providers with professional liability insurance.
