BRI Virtual Speaker Series: Making the Switch to Direct Specialty Care with Dr. Diana Girnita
Stepping away from insurance can be a big risk for specialists. Building a practice outside the traditional model often means rebuilding your panel, rethinking how you attract patients, restructuring your business, and figuring out how and when you get paid for your work. But for physicians willing to make the leap, the reward is freedom to practice medicine on their own terms, without insurers dictating the rules. We are excited to sit down with the physician who coined the now widely-used term “direct specialty care:” Dr. Diana Girnita, rheumatologist, entrepreneur, and founder of the Direct Specialty Care Alliance. Join us as we discuss all things DSC and offer practical considerations for those looking to make the transition.
ABOUT DR. DIANA GIRNITA:
Diana Girnita, MD, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of the Direct Specialty Care Alliance as well as a board-certified rheumatologist and internist. She earned her medical degree and PhD Summa Cum Laude in Romania before moving to the United States to pursue NIH-funded research at Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh—producing 17 peer-reviewed publications in transplant immunology. She completed her rheumatology fellowship at the University of Cincinnati and built a successful conventional practice, where she was named Top Doctor in Cincinnati four consecutive years. In 2020 she launched Rheumatologist OnCall—one of the first Direct Specialty Care practices in the United States. Now operating across 20 states, the practice has documented what happens when a specialist finally has time to listen: patients finding care after 9-month insurance wait times, diagnoses after years of dismissal, and physicians practicing medicine with purpose again. She has since become a nationally-recognized speaker and contributor to media features and articles on the DSC movement.
ABOUT THE BENJAMIN RUSH INSTITUTE:
BRI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that unites unites medical students, students in affiliated healthcare specialties, faculty, doctors, healthcare professionals, and others who believe that free enterprise and a direct patient-doctor relationship are the best means for ensuring optimal patient outcomes at affordable prices. Through leadership conferences, chapter events, scholarships to national health care conferences and consistent written content, BRI strives to cultivate the careers of med students and to fully unleash the power of medicine to maximize human health.