Unlocking Healthcare Real Estate: 5 Insights from Dr. Jami Bryant

Dylan Silver (00:00.836)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel, the nation’s premier real estate mastermind. I’m your host, Dylan Silver, and today on the show we have Dr. Jami Bryant. Dr. Bryant is in the commercial real estate space and a business broker, if you will. Dr. Bryant, welcome to the show.

Dr. Jami Bryant (00:27.426)
Thank you and thank you so much for having me and I look forward to chatting with you today.

Dylan Silver (00:32.4)
Should I call you Jami or Dr. Bryant?

Dr. Jami Bryant (00:34.914)
You can call me Jami.

Dylan Silver (00:36.312)
All right, all right, I’m calling you Jami from here on out. So Jami, when you got into the real estate space, and we talked about that before hopping on the show here, to a lot of folks it can be unclear, but you talked about exiting from the healthcare space and really making a splash there and now being able to choose your hours, choose your time in the real estate space, but talk about.

Dr. Jami Bryant (00:38.414)
What?

Dylan Silver (01:02.02)
your beginnings both in the healthcare space and then later getting into the real estate space.

Dr. Jami Bryant (01:07.374)
Okay, so yeah, I’ve been a healthcare professional for over 20, almost 25 years and majority of that time I’ve been an entrepreneur in the healthcare space as well as working on a corporate job, you know, in the hospital and whatnot. Along the way, you know, I always knew that there was, I wanted to have some sort of passive income. So, you know, I got into real estate investing years ago, whenever.

single-family home for rent, know, how people typically get into real estate investing. But when I was really able to kind of dive in a little deeper and get into a bigger deal was a few years ago when I sold one of the businesses that I was running and you know from that got a nice chunk of money and was able to kind of get into investing in more of a deeper way.

having multiple properties across the country and multiple classes of properties as well.

Dylan Silver (02:08.24)
Do you remember Jami, your first rental property?

Dr. Jami Bryant (02:12.832)
I do, I do. You know, I try to tell, you you said I was a bit, I’m a business broker. And so I try to tell my business broke, my business professionals, you know, don’t fall in love with one thing, right? And so my first rental property was kind of an example of that because I definitely wasn’t in love with it. It wasn’t a property that I

Dylan Silver (02:13.793)
Yeah.

Dr. Jami Bryant (02:35.906)
wanted necessarily to live in, but it was in such a pristine location with little to no money owned on it. So the return on investment was actually pretty high.

Dylan Silver (02:48.75)
Yeah. And where was that located in the country?

Dr. Jami Bryant (02:52.814)
So that was in Florida.

Dylan Silver (02:54.679)
Okay, was it one of the big cities?

Dr. Jami Bryant (02:57.642)
It was near Miami. It wasn’t in Miami. was near Miami.

Dylan Silver (02:59.758)
Okay near Miami. Yeah I’ve always said and I say this if and when I get to I’m going to go live in Fort Lauderdale or I’ve heard Boca is incredible and every time that I give into that area and I go quite a bit actually because I like to travel and one of the waypoints the visa V if you will is via the Miami Fort Lauderdale Airport right.

Dr. Jami Bryant (03:10.894)
those.

Dylan Silver (03:26.754)
And so as we’re landing there, every time I’m landing there, I’m like, this has got to be one of the nicest areas in the country. And so I’m not sure if that’s at all what drew you to that rental, but I always feel like living there and certainly being an investor there, if people have the opportunity to, is just an amazing area of the country.

Dr. Jami Bryant (03:45.646)
Well, yeah, exactly what you just mentioned is why it’s a great area of the country to invest in, because a lot of people want to live in Florida. It’s beautiful. It’s pretty much always sunny. know, if you are somebody who doesn’t want to invest in areas where the weather isn’t always great, know, Florida is one of those places where the weather is pretty much always great. And if you can deal with hot all the time, then there you go. So that’s what makes that area a really good investment place.

Dylan Silver (04:15.642)
So that was your first rental. Were you simultaneously acquiring rental properties during this time when you were in the healthcare space? Or was it really very difficult to do so and therefore you dove in more so to just commercial, or I shouldn’t say just, but commercial when you exited from the healthcare space?

Dr. Jami Bryant (04:36.854)
Right, so I actually dove more into it after I exited from my corporate healthcare facility, because it was challenging working corporate and running two businesses, two healthcare businesses. So that rental property, once I sold it, I didn’t pick up another piece of property until later, and that property was actually the property that I lived in, which was a condo in downtown Atlanta.

I started using that for rental and then I acquired a home in Atlanta and then I started acquiring land. So I don’t have any homes built on that land but I have land in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas, two properties in Georgia and I don’t have that property in Florida anymore. sold that.

Dylan Silver (05:23.664)
Okay, okay. Jami, talk us through or walk us through getting into the commercial space. Was it very self-explanatory to you having owned business and exited from that business or was it something totally new that required a pretty steep learning curve?

Dr. Jami Bryant (05:41.73)
So it was somewhat self-explanatory, you know, running a business and having a business in several different commercial spaces. Being able to learn by doing was definitely helpful, but of course, you know, there are laws and regulations that you have to know as an agent, as a licensed agent. So being a licensed agent definitely…

helped me hone in and fine-tune what I already knew just from experience. And so, learned as I went along the way, but once I actually got my license, that’s when I was held to a higher standard and I actually knew more because I knew the exact laws that I needed to follow and whatnot.

Dylan Silver (06:31.546)
So licensed agent, realtor, I’m assuming, which state was this in?

Dr. Jami Bryant (06:36.504)
So Georgia and Washington State.

Dylan Silver (06:39.056)
Georgia, did you have to two separate exams?

Dr. Jami Bryant (06:41.964)
I guess, unfortunately. So in Georgia, once you get a license in one state, some states you can go and just pay a fee and get your license, but Washington state was not one of those states, so you have to take just the state portion, not the national portion again.

Dylan Silver (06:43.0)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (06:59.77)
Did you have to sit for a bunch of classes as well or you just were able to retake, not retake, but take the test?

Dr. Jami Bryant (07:05.164)
So I had to sit for the hours. You had to have your certain amount of hours. But it’s completely worth it because now that I’m here in Washington, we’re working on so many different deals. just, it made sense. know, having your license as an investor provides you with a lot more tax write-offs than not having it. So for me, it just, like I said, it made sense just to go ahead and get the license.

Dylan Silver (07:31.312)
You know, Jami, to your point, I actually got my license yesterday.

Dr. Jami Bryant (07:36.558)
wow, congratulations! That’s amazing! What state? Texas.

Dylan Silver (07:39.248)
Thank you. I’m in Texas. I’m in North DFW Metro, a town in a county called Denton, which is really closer to Oklahoma, literally, than it is Dallas, 35 minutes from Oklahoma. But what I’ve seen, first of all, to any agents listening, the test is so hard that, especially here in Texas, that I gained a lot of respect for agents.

Dr. Jami Bryant (07:50.624)
I’m familiar.

Dr. Jami Bryant (08:02.498)
Especially in Texas. Yes. I thought about getting a Texas license, but the test is so hard, I was like, I don’t want put myself in this stress again.

Dylan Silver (08:11.344)
You know, Jami, you you’ve been through so much school, you know, you don’t get those letters in front of your name, Dr. Jami Bryant without it. So I think you’d pass the flying colors, especially with two licenses. But I will say, you know, having having the license, just from my perspective, especially here in Texas, enables you to have a greater understanding and appreciation for what’s going on, even if you’re quote unquote, just wholesaling, which I

Dr. Jami Bryant (08:16.095)
Thank very much.

Dr. Jami Bryant (08:35.874)
set.

Dylan Silver (08:41.198)
say that lightly because you’re not just, but in my case, that’s what I was doing. So talk us through a little bit about how those first commercial transactions went, how you found the deals, and then how that ended up coming about.

Dr. Jami Bryant (08:57.528)
So the way that I found the deals actually were through my business consulting clients. So that consult for businesses who want to scale an exit plan. those first transactions that I actually came across was from them, you know, being able to be the agent for them as they were moving into a bigger building and things of that nature. So I think it’s important for the listeners to understand that when you’re

commercial, what is similar about working with residential is you have you can buy and sell commercial property but you can also lease. So a lot of the places that you shop at

they’re typically leasing the buildings that they’re in. So I primarily work with healthcare professionals. I don’t only work with healthcare professionals, but that’s my primary audience. And so, you know, just making sure that they understand the commercial space that they’re moving into, making sure that’s gonna meet the standards that they need by all the governing body.

that say, you’re to be practicing safe practices with your patients and things of that nature. And so that’s really where those deals came from. The other ones came from investors that I…

investor clients that I’m working with and so being with a decent brokerage is going to ensure that you’re around, you know, people who are serious about what they’re doing and being able to refer back and forth. That’s definitely helpful as well. So the key is getting in the right rooms and making connections. So for any new investors that are out there that are looking to

Dr. Jami Bryant (10:38.11)
get into investing, being in those rooms are going to be key.

Dylan Silver (10:46.18)
Yeah, and I couldn’t agree anymore. What I’ve seen is for people who are getting their license or thinking about doing commercial deals, whether you have a license or not, right, you can invest in real property. It’s of course, how do I get in those rooms? And when I was in real estate school, latter part of February, early March, there were people who were very well educated.

And that was their goal, was I have the background, I have the degrees, how do I get into the commercial space? And to your point, Jamie, it’s about working your network. If I heard you right, it was someone that you had already made a connection with through your prior career that was able to be a source of your first commercial deal. And so that’s such a critical thing.

I say this on a bunch of podcasts, being a networking junkie, fanatically networking, like, guerrilla networking is so important because you really, really, and I can’t stress this enough, do not know when a strategic relationship could benefit you in the future.

Dr. Jami Bryant (11:55.092)
Exactly. Especially if, know, whether you’re going to become an agent in real estate or not, whether residential, commercial, whatever. But if you’re thinking about doing any type of investing, the only way you can really do it at a higher level is by being in the right rooms. And you sometimes, you know, there’s a fee to be in that room. It can be nominal or can be extensive. But being, putting yourself in room

with people who have done it before.

and people who understand how to look at deals, that’s so pivotal. And I think that for new investors, that’s one of the things that can be a little bit scary. They don’t know who to trust. But really, you just gotta start putting yourself in rooms. And if you’re not already an agent and you’re looking to get into investing, then you’ve gotta find groups of people who are already investing that you can learn from.

Dylan Silver (12:56.356)
have a similar experience, Jami, you when it comes to networking, I think people who are maybe not necessarily natural self promoters have a difficult time with this idea. And you could say introverted, extroverted, but I’ve seen extroverted people even who are great in other situations, not necessarily be able to navigate these spaces because it’s tricky. It’s tricky to ask questions. You you have to have a huge degree of

student mentality and of humility to get into these rooms. Now with your background, it may have been facilitated, there may have been a bridge there, but it’s certainly still no walk in the park and you have to continue to build those bridges and to nurture those relationships. And again, this idea of being in the room. In real estate, I’ve found many people to be very much an open book.

once you’re in the room with them, right? But so you might go to multiple of these types of events. And on a small scale, it might be a RIA, but on a large scale, you mentioned, you know, nominal and extensive fees. Yeah, there’s rooms like that where people are more than able to see the value of being in that room. And that can be your connection to that, you know, seven figure deal.

I was talking with a woman earlier today who was from Romania, came here with $400 in her pocket, but she had money in a bank account. I want to say it was in Sweden that she wasn’t able to get to the US. And so she literally had to survive with these $400. This was 2018 that she came here and she is now doing commercial deals. This is only seven years later, seven years, know, seven figure commercial deals in the real estate space.

Dr. Jami Bryant (14:51.682)
That’s amazing. And yeah, I’m guessing she positioned herself, you know, again, in the right rooms because even in the commercial space, sometimes it can be challenging to, you know, get people to trust you with those deals. Commercial deals are typically, you know, at a higher price point than what you would see.

residential deal. So to have somebody trust you is going to be a little bit of a challenge if you’re not getting out there and exuding confidence and saying hey you know I can help you sell this you know 20 million dollar piece of property versus the you know 700 or 600 thousand dollar home.

Dylan Silver (15:33.296)
What’s interesting is the way we were talking about it on that podcast, which I think you may share this sentiment, Jamie, is it’s all hard. It’s all hard, right? Sure, there’s greater risk. There’s more leverage in these commercial deals, but it’s hard anyhow, right? So if you’re going to do the single-family residential, if you’re not going to have a license and you’re going to do a short-term rental Airbnb, whatever you’re doing,

you have to be passionate about it it’s going to be hard. Otherwise, that’s going to come through. You could lose money, but also, you know, it could quite literally just be a headache, right? So if it’s all hard, you might as well go for the big fish, right?

Dr. Jami Bryant (16:13.836)
I do have the same sentiment, and you’re absolutely right. It’s all hard. The risks are almost the same whenever it comes to the different type of asset deals. It’s just a matter of how much are you willing to put out there and what are you willing to put in to make it successful.

Dylan Silver (16:33.252)
Jami business broker business brokering. was unfamiliar with this. I’ve heard I’m forgetting the woman’s name but I’ll think of it later. There’s a woman who I was following on Instagram and she has a book about buying businesses like she says it’s Cody Cody Sanchez. That’s her name. But she talks about buying businesses and I bought her book and I’m reading it and I’m thinking

Dr. Jami Bryant (16:54.83)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (17:01.392)
Everyday people can’t really buy businesses, can they? But they’re kind of breaking it down. And so this is relatively new to me. But to our audience, what is being a business broker?

Dr. Jami Bryant (17:13.474)
Yeah, so you kind of honed in on being a business broker, somebody who helps you buy and sell your business. Now if you have somebody who has experience running a business, because in some states you have to have a real estate license to be a business broker.

But in most of the states, you never had to actually run a business to be a business broker. It is something that you go and get trained for. But having somebody who has had experience running an actual business and even selling one, it’s crucial in how well you can sell or buy your business. And so it’s not also just about buying and selling. It could be about

franchise options. So you know you see things like McDonald’s, Subway, In-N-Out Burger, you know all of these fast food places, majority of those are franchises. So there’s an owner and then there’s somebody who comes in and pays a certain amount towards ownership of that brand. And so

Business brokering is really cool because for me typically I will get somebody before they’re ready to sell. So that’s part of my exit planning that I do with individuals or somebody who’s looking to scale their business. So they’ve reached a level that they can’t make any more money and they feel like on their own they can’t make any more money. So they’re bringing…

meet in as an expert to help them try to see how they and their business can make more money. And typically, one of the things that we do is we do talk about that exit plan. Because you as a, so again, I work primarily with healthcare professionals, right? And so if you think about dentists or vets or doctors, even there’s practitioners.

Dr. Jami Bryant (19:07.852)
They are the business, right? So once you take them away, if they’re not strategic about it, then there’s no business. So those are some of the things that we work on. How can you set this up so that you, instead of being Dr. Smith, DDS, you can be like smile dental?

Right? And getting to that level takes time, it takes patience, and it really takes gumption. So for business owners who are looking to eventually get there, and I always tell my people, you didn’t go into business for yourself to work forever until you die, you know? Typically, you go into business for yourself so that you can create some sort of generational wealth or…

you have a strong retirement plan, but how do you do that if you can’t take you out of the business? So that’s kind what we do. That’s kind of what I personally as a business broker focus on. It’s not just, I can sell your business. This is how much it’s worth. Valuing a business is very detailed and very specific, but we don’t just do that. We look at it on a grand scale and look at you as a person versus just the business. And where do you want to

five years or 10 years.

Dylan Silver (20:25.424)
That’s an incredible vertical. I’m thinking about it right now. Everyone goes to the doctor, right? That’s real estate. That building is real estate. And so the hospital, actually don’t know how this is done at all. You’re the first person that I’m talking to who talks about it. But I imagine if the hospital is not owned by the city, which I don’t know if it always is, it’s owned by an entity, right? And so someone has to sell that land, that

Dr. Jami Bryant (20:33.771)
Exactly.

Dr. Jami Bryant (20:40.813)
you

Dr. Jami Bryant (20:49.954)
Business.

Dylan Silver (20:54.19)
that building, know, there’s so much involved, service providers, so on and so forth. And of course, people are living longer and longer and want to be healthy. So there’s so much there. And you really have such a unique niche skill set between being the health care background and then now commercial real estate. Who better to trust in scaling and building a medical business, right?

Dr. Jami Bryant (20:54.381)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (21:22.82)
than someone like yourself? And honestly, how many people are there out there like you? Probably not that many.

Dr. Jami Bryant (21:28.686)
Not that many, no. There definitely isn’t and that’s one thing about me and why I try to stay pretty niche is because I know my healthcare people, right? And I know the rules and regulations. When I worked corporate, that was my job. It was to make sure the hospitals stay accredited and that any risk that came along.

lawsuits and things of that nature that we face them you know head-on, policies, procedures and things of that nature. And so transitioning into the entrepreneurial space and learning that there are a lot of healthcare professionals that are very good at taking care of people.

There are a lot of healthcare professions that don’t understand business and how to make sure that they run their business because they go and work at a hospital or a clinic or something to that nature. And those things are already set up in place for them. The policies, the rules and regs with the state, with the county, with the United States government. And so something as simple as moving into a building that only has one exit or the doors locked from the outside and not the inside.

or whatever the case may be, understanding those simple little things, which rooms can have carpet versus not having carpet, those are very important. And people come to me because, like you said, I have the experience myself personally. And so the things that I’m telling you comes from personal experience, not just doing transactions. And I don’t mean just doing transactions because there are a lot of amazing.

commercial agents out there, but I’ve actually lived it. So I have that kind of connection with those individuals.

Dylan Silver (23:08.048)
Yeah, single family, yeah.

Dylan Silver (23:18.756)
Selfishly, have granular questions that I’ve never thought about and are probably gonna be basic to you, Jami, but to our audience, many probably are having similar questions. People who own medical practices, they’re the owner of the medical practice or maybe a group of them. Does one of them have to be a medical doctor?

Dr. Jami Bryant (23:39.894)
So that’s a very good question. I’m so glad that you asked it because you would be surprised how many businesses, healthcare businesses, like hospitals, clinics, urgent care, businesses that are owned by non-healthcare providers. so typically, depending on what state you’re in, you don’t necessarily have to be a healthcare professional to own a medical.

You can own the business and hire healthcare professionals, but again it depends on what state you’re in because state regulations and what type of LLCs are set up with you know making sure that you have a license and things of that nature that matters. So the short answer is yes and no depending on what state you live in.

Dylan Silver (24:28.194)
And then a follow up to that, and I’m thinking about again, basic question here, but hospitals, right? Is there in any instance, individuals that own large hospitals like emergency rooms, you know, that are capable of triaging, you know, serious conditions, life threatening, or are these all, you know, mostly owned by corporations, larger corporations, and therefore, it’s very, very, very

tricky to have any kind of interface with them as a real estate investor, as a commercial agent.

Dr. Jami Bryant (25:04.398)
So actually more and more nowadays there are many practitioners that individually own, I would say hospitals just yet, maybe like a group of individuals that have come together to try to open up hospital. But standalone urgent cares, which are very popular in Texas.

Dylan Silver (25:25.262)
Yeah, huge.

Dr. Jami Bryant (25:25.742)
I personally have helped many individuals open up some of those. And speaking of, I’m actually working with a group of two doctors and one PA down in the Houston area. They’re going to own some medical condos. So it’s basically just a strip of

It’s five of them in total. One of them they’re gonna run their business out of, okay? The other ones they’re gonna rent out to other healthcare providers. Their end goal is to open a standalone surgery center. But for right now, they’re just gonna start in that strip, you know, condo, strip of condos or whatever. And so some of these things are what we talk about, what I talk about with my clients. Like how can you strategically, because in essence, is real estate

investing that they’re doing. So yeah, they’re running their practice, but they are investing in this business because those other four people that rent out the space, they’re essentially going to pay the total loan.

of the building. So these individuals are going to have their rent paid by their tenants basically and after a certain amount of years they’ll be able to own that building free and clear and then they can choose what they want to do. Hey do I want to sell this and get a large chunk of money? Hey do I want to continue to rent it out and get this you know money coming in? Or do I just want to go here and get my standalone surgery center and then just focus just on that? But in essence that group of people that have now started this

small surgery center in Houston will eventually be able to meet their goals and they have invested in real estate. And for me it’s really important to let people know, especially again healthcare professionals, that you can do this. It doesn’t require a substantial amount of

Dr. Jami Bryant (27:19.822)
pocket because there are so many programs out there, again especially for healthcare business owners, there’s so much money out there and loan and special loan programs and special commercial deals that you know this is a high possibility for you without you having to come out of pocket with a lot of money initially and then here you are owning this building that

maybe worth $30 million and you paid $2 million. You know what I mean? So that’s just one example and I hope I answered your question because I’m so passionate about helping people and get out there and know that they can do this that sometimes I ramble.

Dylan Silver (27:58.862)
No, that’s okay. You hit on such a number of topics and I didn’t want to offend you in any way with asking such a basic question about hospitals. So thank you for going into detail because every time we go to the hospital, which you never want to go to the hospital, right? Especially the emergency room. No one thinks about the real estate involved. Even as a real estate operator myself, I’ve never once thought about, who owns this, right? But someone’s got to own it. And my assumption has always been

Dr. Jami Bryant (28:24.622)
school, the hospital, air.

Dylan Silver (28:28.568)
you know, the city, but of course there’s probably corporations that own these deals. You know, a little bit pivoting here, Jami, one of the interesting pieces in the real property, real estate space, that is also medical, that a lot of people will see, I think, more and more coming up, are these standalone MRI imaging centers, right? The only thing that they do, they don’t do

Dr. Jami Bryant (28:54.238)
yeah.

Dylan Silver (28:57.846)
anything other than MRIs at these imaging centers and you know for better or for worse in many cases insurance will not cover these MRIs but these centers of course the demand is there and people don’t want to be waiting at the hospital or their however however it’s getting paid for it’s getting paid for clearly the demand is there and it’s growing what do you make of that space what’s your take on

Dr. Jami Bryant (29:24.622)
So, you I think you hit the nail on the head when you said people don’t want to wait at the hospital. And so that’s why you will now see, like now in 2025, what you didn’t see in 2015 was majority of the departments that are in the hospital that can be split up and made into standalone buildings and other businesses, that’s what’s happening right now. So you spoke about imaging, OB birthing centers, you’ll see a lot more.

just a regular standalone birthing centers coming out. I mentioned like a standalone ER, those are very popular in Texas and they’re starting to make their way across the country. Whereas you don’t have to go and sit at the hospital, you can go to the standalone emergency room and so many other departments. And I think that there’s a lot of hospitals in the past five years, post pandemic, hospitals are running in the red.

because of the pandemic. So there’s a lot of hospitals, I don’t know if you know, that have actually closed down. And some of those hospitals are in very pivotal communities. So when you have businesses that are opening up that are these standalone businesses, it’s so crucial to help alleviate some of the pressures that the remaining hospitals are going to have to face. Because the people who were going to those hospitals that closed, they still have some to go somewhere.

right, to get their care. So you’ll see more primary care physicians out there. You’ll see more integrative healthcare practitioners out there that are trying to help alleviate people utilizing emergency rooms as primary care. Sometimes they take insurance, sometimes they don’t. know, cash-based model is very doable.

especially if you have some sort of membership or things of that nature. So there are ways for these businesses to make money. There are ways for these businesses to thrive because there is a need. the more that, you know, healthcare has always been a business, but the more that the hospitals themselves continue to suffer like they have over the past five years, the more it opens up the door for these other businesses to open. you know, starting a business or running a business is an investment

Dr. Jami Bryant (31:41.936)
ended up itself. So sometimes the people who are starting these MRI imaging centers, x-ray centers, sometimes they have people who come in and they want to invest in the business itself. Maybe, you know, that’s going to help them purchase the building. Maybe it’s just going to help pay up the lease for 10 years or whatever. But there’s just such a need and you’ll see more of them popping up in the next five years, even more than they have.

for eight years.

Dylan Silver (32:12.772)
You know, Jami, that’s such an interesting point there. Not just one point, but multiple. And one of the things that came up to me, which I want to ask, I think a lot of people have this question is, you know, every time we go to the hospital, we get a big hospital bill, insurance covers it, or we have to cover it, right? Because it goes on your credit, right? So, you know, one way or another, people are either paying it or they’re not. What happens when they’re not paying it? Does the hospital have to take that on? Are they able to get

Dr. Jami Bryant (32:34.808)
Right.

Dylan Silver (32:41.904)
money from the government to pay for, you if someone needed life-saving surgery, the hospital has to do it. I think by the law, right, I’m not an attorney, but I assume that if someone is, you know, bleeding out that they have to, they have to, right? So who, what does the hospital do to cover that bill if the person can’t cover it?

Dr. Jami Bryant (33:01.134)
So the answer to that question is so multi-layered, right? Because there’s publicly owned hospitals and there’s privately owned hospitals. There’s hospitals that are accredited by governing federal and county governing agencies, which they follow certain rules, whereas other ones who are not accredited don’t.

And I say that just to educate individuals so that they know that depending on which hospital you go to is going to affect if there could be some alleviation in your bill or not, or even if care is going to be provided.

because believe it or not, yes, some hospitals have to follow certain laws saying they have to provide certain care, but that’s not the case for every hospital. People can get turned away. So that’s definitely a very real thing. The other piece of it is you’re getting a bill from the hospital, which is a bill that includes every different, every department.

So your food is gonna be its own bill. Your room is gonna be its own bill. Your imaging, that’s gonna be a completely different bill. And so sometimes you may have one bill, let’s say you have a baby, right? Having a baby nowadays is gonna be somewhere between 15 and $20,000. When you have a baby, you have to pay for all of the ultrasound, the ultrasound tech, if it’s not done by…

You’re paying for your room, of course. You’re paying for your physician. If your physician has any type of interns or whatever, there’s so many layers to your hospital bill and that’s why people, when you look at it, you may just see that one number.

Dr. Jami Bryant (34:44.3)
Or you may get two or three other bills and you may think to yourself, these bills are probably included in this one big bill. But the physician usually will bill you separately from the hospital themselves. are there ways for the hospital to recoup money? Sometimes. It depends on what type of programs they’re on. If they’re county-ran hospital, then they have more options to recoup some of the money.

Otherwise, then yeah, I they do have the right to sue you. They do have the right to go after you, know, collections and things of that nature, garnishing wages, things of that nature. So you want to be mindful if you’re having to pay any portion of your hospital bill out of pocket because just like with any other business, whether it’s a car or a house or whatnot, they can still go through the process to recoup those funds if you are not working with them to try to minimize the bill.

Dylan Silver (35:38.66)
Jami, is that how these hospitals were going out of business? Is through not being able, running in the red as we were saying, through not being able to recoup? Or was it death by a thousand paper cuts? You have maybe some level of disorganization as far as how things are being expensed, poor asset management, and on top of that you have people not paying their hospital.

Dr. Jami Bryant (35:41.41)
Yeah.

Dr. Jami Bryant (36:04.258)
Well, one of the reasons why is because, know, healthcare is, healthcare brings in the most money.

one of the industries that bring in a significant amount of money. However, you have to consider the fact that the professionals who work in the space are all highly educated and licensed individuals. So their pay is pretty, I wouldn’t call it substandard, if you know what I mean. So you have to pay the people to take care of the people, because if there’s no people to take care of the people, then your hospital will end up closing. But as far as running in the red,

It’s not just operations. A lot of it has to do with equipment, medication, and things of that nature. Even hospitals that were highly profitable, and I know that’s weird to say. Yes, hospitals are business, and yes, they are profitable. But even hospitals that are highly profitable, the reason why I mentioned the pandemic is because you had almost a year.

worth of care where people who really had insurance, didn’t have insurance, were there. And you couldn’t, once they were there on a ventilator, taking this medication that costs a lot of money, you couldn’t just throw them out on the street. So care is being provided for them and there’s no resources coming in, because they were coming in whether they had insurance or not. You’re talking about a global pandemic.

this is not the time to be in line, we’re not gonna take them, right? The government had to step in and tell these places you have to take these individuals. And so, keeping somebody alive on a ventilator for a month is very expensive. Like I say, you’ve got your doctors getting paid, you’ve got the nurses getting paid, respiratory therapists, all of the medication that comes along with

Dylan Silver (37:41.977)
Yeah.

Dr. Jami Bryant (37:52.374)
keeping your lungs healthy is going to be very expensive. So a lot of hospitals, why I mentioned they’re going in the red post pandemic is because you had so much time where people were working double, triple what they normally would work. consumers, the patients, sorry, were in the hospital much longer than they typically would have been. And there was such a mass.

amount of people in the hospital all at once utilizing and just draining all of those resources that the hospital had to pay whatever they could, whatever they had to reserve, they had to get loans and things of that nature. And so now here we are five years later and you’ve had multiple hospitals that have ended up closing because you can only hold on to the pressure of a bleed for so long before you have to finally lift your hands up and say, okay, we’re

bleeding out. We’ve got to hand it off to somebody else who can actually fix this problem.

Dylan Silver (38:55.022)
You know, Jami, it’s such an interesting discussion point specifically as someone who is in the real estate space myself and to our listeners who are operators in the real estate space themselves. You know, every aspect of our American society, anytime you walk anywhere, there’s real estate going on. If you check into a hospital, you know, that’s real estate and that’s a business transaction, even though, of course, you want to be handled with care and tact and professionalism, but

These hospitals are businesses themselves. We are coming up on time here, Jami. Where can folks go to get a hold of you?

Dr. Jami Bryant (39:26.945)
out.

Dr. Jami Bryant (39:32.44)
So yeah, just definitely check me out at my website, www.Dr.JamiBryant. That’s J-A-M-I, no E, B-R-Y-A-N-T. I’m on LinkedIn, Dr. Jami Bryant, and I’m on Facebook. Yep, I’m on Facebook, Dr. Jami Bryant.

So that’s pretty much how you can get in touch with me. My website is the best option. Or people can email me at info at Dr. Jami Bryant.

Dylan Silver (40:04.912)
Well, Jami, thank you for coming on the show. And to our listeners, this wraps up another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast. Thank you for tuning in.

Dr. Jami Bryant (40:15.842)
Thank you for having me.

Dylan Silver (40:18.106)
Absolutely.