Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, and Capitalism with Dutch Rojas of Physician Capital, Inc. 2-17-25
Mon, 17 Feb 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker speaks with Dutch Rojas, Founder & CEO of Physician Capital, Inc. Dutch shares his journey in healthcare entrepreneurship, his passion for price transparency, and his work in helping physicians build equity through innovative financial strategies.
Chapter 1: Who is Dutch Rojas and what is his background?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by a brilliant and outspoken entrepreneur. He's a healthcare entrepreneur and just a fascinating person. We're joined today by Dutch Rojas. Dutch is going to tell us what he's doing, what trends he's focused on.
I love his enthusiasm, his intelligence, and his just embracing of entrepreneurialism and capitalism. Dutch, tell us a bit about yourself and where you're most focused today.
Well, I have to tell you, this is the greatest introduction I've ever had. That was so generous and so kind. I feel like saying all those things back to you. You're the reason I met Hayek, and then you were the reason I met Keith Smith. And so those are two very influential people. One, because I'm very involved with overseas missions, building surgery centers for people that don't have anything.
I love that. It's the thing that really makes my heart happy. And then Keith Smith really helped me propel Price Transparency. And so those two things, you were responsible for the introduction of both of those people, so I'm forever grateful.
Take a moment there, because those are two brilliant, interesting people. Andrew Hayek and Keith Smith, and really interesting, very different people, but both entrepreneurial and brilliant. Take a moment, give us 30 seconds on Keith Smith, then maybe 30 seconds on Andrew Hayek, if you don't mind.
Yeah. So Keith Smith's really the father of price transparency. He made it so that not only individuals or consumers could shop and compare prices on an array of healthcare treatments and services, but he also allowed employers to do the first direct contracts. Meaning you have a plan that's a PPO. He allowed you to build a tier one network on top of that. So you had first dollar coverage.
And in the age of high deductibles, that was a big deal. And he kind of exposed price discovery, which for me as a capitalist is the number one thing. It's the number one signal I use to determine the value of a good or service. And so – Keith is entirely responsible for starting that movement.
I know there were people probably earlier than him, but he took his – I've been to his surgery center many times. He took his surgery center. He took his 214 partners, and he allowed them to do bundled prices, meaning like – anesthesia, facility fee, pro fee, and any other DME, implant fee, put it together as one price and offer that to the community. He does not accept network rates.
He doesn't participate in any carrier rate transactions. And he was the first to do it. He started in 97. I met him around 2008. And one of the first conferences I ever saw him speak at was yours. He was on a Saturday and he was in the main room at the Swiss Hotel. And I still remember there being like seven people in the conference room and I was at the front.
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Chapter 2: What is price transparency and why is it important?
I found really good people in these startups, really smart young people that give me a lot of hope. And we take them out and we go, hey, why don't you come work on this new project for us? And on the other side, we're getting a chance to really help physicians build some true equity, right? They've always been W-2 labor people.
Even if they work for themselves through an LLC, it's always been about their labor and their hands. And so it's like, hey, guess what? Let's build a portfolio. Here's where we can help you. This is what private equity is. That's not me. This is what venture capital is. This is how venture capital works. This is these types of opportunities that you can be an investor in.
And they have asymmetrical returns. And so, Scott, this has been just an absolute fabulous deal. I think you had Dr. Paul Slosar on it. He was my co-founder. We have eight GPs, all docs.
right just in an array of wonderful specialties from ob gyn all the way to ortho and like it's just i think i'm turning 50 this year and i'm having more fun than i've ever had in my entire life and talk about that for a second i'm going to come back to something else because there's so many topics that are fascinating to visit with you about talk about turning 50 and maintaining the energy and motivation i mean i'm blown away at the positivity the enthusiasm
You're opinionated and smart. Talk a little bit about maintaining that energy flow and keeping it going and maintaining that momentum. And what do you do to take care of yourself to do that?
Well, look, I think it's really tough. Like I have two small kids, three and seven. Like most professionals, I'm on the road Sunday to Wednesday, Sunday to Thursday, pretty much every week. And look, I think this whole Maha movement to me is super exciting because it's finally saying to people like, hey, you can be healthy. We're going to empower you.
And more importantly, we're going to enable you to be healthy. And I love that. So look, I don't go out to dinner with clients anymore. When I'm in Chicago, I really want to go to dinner. I might go to dinner one night out of the three, but I won't go with clients most of the nights. I'll go back to the hotel and I'll go to the gym. Nobody wants to do these things. I'm not a gym rat by nature.
I don't think it's fun, but I did play D1 soccer, and I did serve in the Marine Corps for six years, and so I've got some level of fitness that's pretty important. I think, man, your body is a temple. God gave it to you. People don't agree, but I do. You know, he created you in his image. He wants you to take care of your body. And so I'm like, hey, let's do it together. Like my kids do it.
My wife does it. Right. We all do it. And no, sometimes do I want a hamburger? Do I want, you know, a Philly cheesesteak like I did last night? Like, yeah, of course. But what you really want to do is, you know, I walk every morning. I run every morning. I get up super early. I'm up by three thirty or so. I go to bed by nine. Right. I just want to live the most of life that I can live.
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