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

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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

The $100K Idea Transforming the Business of Dentistry

Dr. Lincoln Harris, founder and CEO of Ripe Global, reveals the key insight revolutionizing DSO profitability: Top-performing DSOs are clinically led, not operationally driven.

When leadership treats dentists as mere laborers, EBITDA suffers.

Dr. Harris shares how Ripe Global is transforming skill development with:

1. Simulation training that 4-10Xs hands-on repetitions to accelerate procedures
2. Data models that quantify aptitude and predict provider production
3. Tying training outcomes directly to average billings

He also opens up about hard-won lessons:

1. Raising capital as a dentist founder without Silicon Valley connections
2. Hiring to complement founder strengths (COO, CFO, CTO)
3. Implementing data systems to link training, billing, and production

Dentists will learn how to boost case acceptance by sharpening skills. DSO leaders will discover why prioritizing clinicians is the key to capturing the elusive 2-3X growth potential.

⚡ 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.

Full conversation on Healthcare100.

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Burnt out dentists. Revolving door hygienists. Procurement headaches. The DSO world's toughest challenges all have one thing in common, argues DCA's Laurence Benz: a failure to put purpose over profits.

On this episode of Healthcare100, the Dental Care Alliance CEO shares how he's translating his "Call to Care" philosophy from the PT world to the dental industry. from physical therapy into dentistry

Laurence believes analytics and automation can only take a DSO so far - to unlock the next level of growth, leaders need to focus on three human pillars: clinical excellence, compassionate customer service, and meaningful provider purpose.

The Problem: Many DSOs overemphasize unit-level metrics and productivity, leading to provider burnout and patient depersonalization. With 50%+ turnover and hygienist shortages post-COVID, the industry faces a supply-demand mismatch.

The DCA Playbook:

Laurence is taking a fundamentally different approach to growth, one that prioritizes people before systems:

1. Upskilling clinicians through the DCA Academy to build confidence and capability, turning clinical competency into true mastery
2. Redefining customer service with DCA’s “Amazing” principles to create a culture of compassion
3. Scaling provider purpose by honoring DCA’s 35-year legacy while celebrating real, present wins
4. Balancing decentralized ownership with centralized excellence to drive same-store organic growth

Optimizing scheduling, compensation models, and technology integrations to engage hygienists and attract new patients

With his deeply human-centric approach, Laurence is positioning DCA to create a lifetime of smiles for providers and patients alike. Tune in for an inspiring conversation on scaling with soul 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.

Full conversation on Healthcare100.

🎧 Spotify: https://t2m.io/yq0eaWz

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📺 YouTube: https://t2m.io/U3Q6xPB

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

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From Empty Slots to Full Bookings: Solving No-Shows in Behavioral Health

20% of behavioral health revenue disappears to no-shows and billing chaos but top-performing practices are capturing $125K+ annually through simple operational fixes.

Our Guest: Dr. Edisa Shirley - Chief Mental Health Officer at ClinicMind, licensed mental health counselor who led multi-state behavioral health operations and M&A integrations for organizations acquired by Optum, holds a doctorate in I-O Psychology focused on provider wellbeing and patient outcomes.

The Problem: Post-COVID mental health demand hit record levels, but access remains broken. Practices are drowning in 120-day credentialing delays, fragmented payer requirements across 50 state systems, and revenue cycle dysfunction. One solo psychiatrist completed $100,000 worth of patient visits with zero claims filed - he had no idea until an audit revealed the gap.

The Solution: Pre-audit your revenue cycle before it becomes a crisis. Top practices obsess over five operational KPIs: clean claim rate, days in AR, denial rate, no-show percentage, and provider productivity. Stop chasing new patients and start capturing revenue already sitting on your schedule through systematic appointment reminders and billing discipline.

What You'll Discover: Why behavioral health remains the only specialty reimbursed by time instead of complexity. The Mississippi TMS denial trap costing practices six figures annually. How cutting no-shows by just 20% adds $125,000 without seeing additional patients. The three questions every practice owner should answer, but most can't. Why some payers still require blue ink on paper applications, while others use delegated credentialing.

This episode reveals how behavioral health operators turn administrative chaos into a competitive advantage through measurement and systematic improvement.

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

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

Healthcare executives keep telling us the same thing: "We're growing locations, but our margins aren't scaling with us." So we brought together three revenue cycle management experts who collectively oversee operations for thousands of healthcare practices to understand why this happens and how the top performers solve it.

Our Guests:

1. Rob Linder - Chief Strategy Officer at eAssist (works with 14,000 practices)
2. Mike Yates - CFO at Peak Dental Services (manages 60+ locations)
3. Sina Amiri - VP of Revenue at Zentist (revenue data from 100+ DSOs)

The Problem: Most multi-site operators are drowning in operational complexity, adding locations faster than they can build systems to manage them. The result? 25% of industry accounts receivable sits in 90+ day buckets, critical staff shortages in RCM roles, and manual processes that don't scale.

The Solution: Top performers have discovered that scaling isn't about adding more people or processes - it's about eliminating work entirely through intelligent operational architecture.

Key insights:

Mike's team achieved 102% insurance collection rates by redesigning their entire front-end process. They automated what could be automated and eliminated steps that didn't need to exist.

Rob just completed an AR recovery project that found $29 million in aged receivables. The root cause analysis revealed that most problems started with basic insurance verification failures - completely preventable issues.

Sina's data shows the industry could save $1 billion annually through payment reconciliation automation alone.

Each guest shares specific strategies they use to generate substantial EBITDA improvements, including tactical frameworks for AR recovery, billing optimization, and process automation.

⚡ 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.

Catch us wherever you listen to podcasts:

🎧 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