No Insurance Needed! Same Day Appointments! Unlimited Visits! Pay Whatever You Can! How Dr. Paulius Mui Is Reinventing Primary Care to Put Patients First

Dr. Paulius Mui is a family physician who refuses to play by medicine’s traditional rules. Instead of settling into full-time clinical work, he’s built a portfolio career that blends patient care, technology, and community-building. In his latest chapter, he’s decided to launch a new direct primary care clinic where patients pay what they can. Even though that means he personally will lose money at the outset, Paulius has decided to choose mission over money and put his patients first – no matter the cost.

On this episode of How I Doctor, Dr. Graham Walker talks with Paulius about his decision to launch a direct-pay practice and what he’s learned as he experiments with how to provide new models of care. He also dives deep into how primary care has gotten so broken and what the future of primary care could look like if more physicians decide to go the route of Paulius and break out of the box that the system puts them in.Paulius doesn’t just talk the talk: He also walks the walk. In order to help inspire other physicians to follow his example, and to expose others as to what is possible, he’s put together a comprehensive resource guide about how to set up, run, and learn more about what a Direct Primary Care practice actually is. You’ll also find recommended books and conferences where you can learn directly from other physicians who have made the leap.Whether you’re curious about starting a DPC practice of your own, or simply interested in how this field is evolving in real time, this guide offers concrete resources and ways to get started.

Key Podcast Moments

Here are a select few moments of the podcast that stood out.

Mission Over Money: Choosing Practices That Prioritize Patients

“Financially, it’s not the best decision for me because my practice is probably gonna lose money for some time… but if that allows patients to be seen when they need to be seen, that’s what fills my cup.”

Instead of optimizing for profit, Paulius launched a direct primary care practice that lets patients pay what they can afford. It’s a model that may not scale or attract investors, but it restores meaning, autonomy, and purpose — reminding doctors why they went into medicine in the first place.

Why Full-Time Primary Care Has Become Nearly Impossible

“Most of what we really do is not on the internet. It is so contextualized to the patient, to the system in which we work — and the work is invisible.”

Behind every 15-minute visit is hours of uncompensated labor, emotional energy, and system-wrestling that never shows up in ICD codes. Paulius explains why this invisible work makes full-time primary care unsustainable for many physicians — and why it leaves so many feeling burned out or boxed in.

Building Better Systems Through Tech, Community, and Curiosity

“Solutions are gonna come and go. The problems we should be solving are fundamental to how we move humanity forward — and it’s a lot more interesting to find those problems with like-minded misfits.”

Paulius argues that doctors don’t have to settle for firefighting within broken systems — they can build new ones. By pairing clinical insight with technology, community, and a relentless curiosity, he shows how physicians can reimagine care delivery and reclaim their creativity as builders, not just practitioners.

Direct Primary Care (DPC) Resource Guide

Direct Primary Care (DPC) has become one of the most compelling models for doctors who want to practice medicine on their own terms, prioritize relationships over RVUs, and design care around patients instead of payors.

To help you explore what that looks like in practice, we’ve pulled together a companion guide with tools, blogs, organizations, and examples of thriving DPC practices.

🛠 Tools for Starting a DPC Practice