Jason Heffelfinger, CEO of AmeriVet Veterinary Partners, runs one of the fastest-growing vet services platforms in the country: 700 DVMs, 200+ sites, and a clear framework for how to grow in a market where industry visits are actually declining.

On this episode of Healthcare100, Jason, former head of pet services at Petco and now CEO of AmeriVet, shares how he’s scaling one of the country’s largest vet platforms by refusing to grow through price and building infrastructure before deploying capital.

The Problem: Vet industry visits per pet are declining even as pet ownership grows. PE-backed groups that over-acquired during the pandemic are carrying integration debt, disconnected tech stacks, and provider retention issues that cap same-store growth.

The Solution: Jason is taking a platform-first approach by:

1. Earning provider trust from day one through radical visibility and accessibility (01:45)
2. Focusing the entire organization on new client acquisition as the single growth metric (04:08)
3. Pausing acquisitions to build a unified tech stack and singular PIMS before scaling back up (09:32)
4. Closing the pharmacy compliance gap to complete the full pet care circle (11:37)
5. Using AI outbound calling to re-engage lapsed clients and drive visits without price increases (19:14)
6. Building a DVM concierge retention team and optimizing scheduling to expand capacity without adding headcount (30:05)

With a platform-first philosophy and an obsession with removing consumer friction, Jason is positioning AmeriVet to outgrow an industry running in place.

Full conversation on Healthcare100.

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⚡ Amol Nirgudkar (Patient Prism CEO, 8 years healthcare AI expertise) and A.J. Peak (multi-site healthcare operations expert and founder of Health Wealth Capital) dig into the tactical frameworks that separate scaling winners from everyone else on Healthcare100. We break down the growth engines behind America’s fastest-scaling healthcare organizations with the operators who built them.

Scaling a dental practice is hard. Scaling to 27 practices in 18 months without losing your purpose is nearly impossible. But that's exactly what AJ Leonetti and Rising Tide Dental Partners have achieved through a relentless focus on patient care, dentist autonomy, and values-driven growth.

Our Guest: AJ Leonetti, CEO of Rising Tide Dental Partners. As a dentist who's worked in every role from assistant to multi-practice owner, AJ brings a 360-degree view to the DSO space.

The Problem: DSO growth often sacrifices patient care and dentist autonomy for scale.

The Solution: Rising Tide is charting a different course. By putting dentists in the driver's seat, investing in mentorship at every level, and making decisions based on purpose over profits, they're proving that rapid growth and values-driven practice can coexist.

Key Insights:

1. Successful partnerships are built on shared vision, not just financial alignment
2. Dentist-owners need real decision-making power to drive meaningful change
3. Diagnosing practice needs is the critical first step to improvement
4. Transparent performance data unlocks healthy competition and growth
5. Maintaining low leverage creates unmatched strategic flexibility

In this episode, AJ shares the hard-won lessons learned from scaling Rising Tide to 27 practices in just 18 months. He's pulling back the curtain on their unconventional approach to partnership, culture-building, and dentist empowerment and revealing why putting purpose first is the key to enduring success in the DSO space.

⚡ Amol Nirgudkar (Patient Prism CEO, 8 years healthcare AI expertise) and A.J. Peak (multi-site healthcare operations expert and founder of Health Wealth Capital) dig into the tactical frameworks that separate scaling winners from everyone else on Healthcare100. We break down the growth engines behind America's fastest-scaling healthcare organizations with the operators who built them.

Thanks for listening! Subscribe for more insights from the executives scaling healthcare's most successful organizations.

Full conversation on Healthcare100.

🎧 Spotify: https://t2m.io/yq0eaWz

🍎 Apple: https://t2m.io/1bQPiib

📺 YouTube: https://t2m.io/U3Q6xPB

🌐 All episodes: https://t2m.io/kSc7KYQ

Follow us for more insights: https://t2m.io/HGeS9xG

70% of high-value treatment proposals fail due to payment issues but top-performing DSOs are converting 90%+ through financing automation.

Our Guest: Stephen Sweeney - Co-founded CareCredit (now the largest healthcare financing platform), invested $250 million in mobile financing technology, and scaled Clear Choice dental to $1 billion through a financing-first growth strategy.

The Problem: DSO growth through acquisitions is becoming more challenging in 2025, forcing practices to maximize existing location potential. Meanwhile, patients have $400 average savings when treatments cost $1,650. Most DSOs focus on procurement savings while losing $300K+ annually in walked-out patients.

The Solution: Pre-approve patients before appointments. Leading DSOs achieve 50%+ acceptance rates on high-value treatments through systematic financing integration. Transform financing from a vendor relationship to revenue infrastructure. Stop competing on MDR rates and start competing on conversion rates.

What You'll Discover: Why Clear Choice scaled faster than any dental DSO by making financing their primary growth engine. The 13-state regulatory shift is killing tablet-based applications. How smart DSOs align marketing and operations using capacity-based financing strategies. Mobile financing technology driving 9x more patient engagement. The real math behind converting 2-3 additional patients daily versus cost reduction strategies.

This episode reveals how billion-dollar DSOs think about patient financing as growth infrastructure, not just payment processing.

About Healthcare100

⚡ Amol Nirgudkar (Patient Prism CEO, 8 years healthcare AI expertise) and A.J. Peak (multi-site healthcare operations expert and founder of Health Wealth Capital) dig into the tactical frameworks that separate scaling winners from everyone else on Healthcare100. We break down the growth engines behind America's fastest-scaling healthcare organizations with the operators who built them.

Thanks for listening! Subscribe for more insights from the executives scaling healthcare's most successful organizations.

Full conversation on Healthcare100.

🎧 Spotify: https://t2m.io/yq0eaWz

🍎 Apple: https://t2m.io/1bQPiib

📺 YouTube: https://t2m.io/U3Q6xPB

🌐 All episodes: https://t2m.io/kSc7KYQ

⚡ Amol Nirgudkar (Patient Prism CEO, 8 years healthcare AI expertise) and A.J. Peak (multi-site healthcare operations expert and founder of Health Wealth Capital) dig into the tactical frameworks that separate scaling winners from everyone else on Healthcare100. We break down the growth engines behind America's fastest-scaling healthcare organizations with the operators who built them.

Follow us for more insights: https://t2m.io/HGeS9xG