After years of caring for thousands of patients in Fort Walton Beach, family physicians Dr. Chris Pappas and Dr. John Loudermilk want those patients to know two things: thank you, and they are still practicing medicine.
The two doctors, who left their previous practice on July 31, are opening a new family medicine practice in Destin affiliated with MDVIP, a national network of about 1,600 physicians focused on preventive care. They are each accepting new patients.
“We’re grateful. We love our patients,” Pappas said. “We’re passionate about being physicians who provide the best care possible.”
Pappas has been part of the community since 2012 and Loudermilk since 2021. Pappas said his last month at his previous practice, after notification letters went out to patients at the end of June, was spent saying goodbye.
“It was a month of saying goodbye every day, and it was emotional and painful,” he said.
Pappas said they have heard that a lot of patients believed he and Loudermilk had either moved or retired.
“We’re still in the community,” Loudermilk said. “We’re still practicing evidence-based family medicine, and we would be honored to continue to provide those services over here in Destin.”
From Special Forces to family medicine
Pappas said his interest in medicine began with Dr. Donald G. Martin, the family doctor in Southern California who delivered him and cared for him until he enlisted.
He was pre-med at the University of California, Riverside, until he burned out on school, he said, and joined the Army because he wanted to be in Special Forces. He spent eight years in infantry and Special Forces roles and served in the first Gulf War before medicine came back to his attention.
He earned his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and later served as the doctor for the Army’s 3rd Ranger Battalion for two years, caring for 600 Rangers and their families. He also served with Special Forces units and deployed to combat three times. He is board certified in family medicine and primary care sports medicine, according to his MDVIP profile.
Pappas retired from the Army in 2012 after 28 years and moved to Niceville. He joined a Fort Walton Beach family practice that year as the junior of four physicians and eventually became the senior physician of six.
“I love being a family doctor. I love taking care of the whole family,” Pappas said, adding that he has cared for a number of families spanning four generations.
He said caring for the area’s large military and veteran population means a great deal to him.
“There is something different about those that wear the uniform,” Pappas said. “And so for me to be able to take care of these folks means such a great deal, to take care of my brothers and sisters.”
A $39 flight to Destin
Loudermilk earned his undergraduate chemistry degree and medical degree from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and completed his family medicine residency at East Tennessee State University in Bristol, Tennessee.
After residency, he returned to West Virginia and spent a year at a health center providing indigent care, then practiced in Cincinnati for about seven years.
During the COVID shutdowns, Loudermilk and his wife had a few days off and were headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, when she suggested stopping at the airport to look for deals. They found a $39 flight to Destin.
“Absolutely loved the beaches, the area, but one common theme was everybody was so friendly,” he said. “It felt like West Virginia.”
Loudermilk said he returned to work in Cincinnati, where his health system had been bought out by a large conglomerate. While looking at job postings, he found a listing for a physician in Fort Walton Beach and learned a doctor there was preparing to retire.
Loudermilk focuses on adult and geriatric medicine and said he enjoys complex cases involving conditions such as heart failure, diabetes and high blood pressure. He is also medical director at Westwood, a skilled nursing facility, where he rounds on patients every Thursday.
Both doctors perform joint and trigger point injections in the office, he said, which can keep patients from being referred elsewhere for those procedures.
‘Value in Prevention’
Pappas said he wants the new practice to be understood for what it is: personalized primary care focused on prevention, not concierge medicine.
“What we’re doing with MDVIP is personalized primary care,” Pappas said. MDVIP focuses on prevention, and the “VIP” stands for “Value in Prevention.”
In traditional primary care, Pappas said rising costs and shrinking insurance reimbursements push physicians to see more patients each day in less time. He added that doctors often see 20 to 25 patients a day.
“As the costs go up and the reimbursements go down, the only way to make it work is just to see more and more patients,” Loudermilk said. “But there’s only so many hours in the day, so that time with each patient goes down and down and down.”
Under the MDVIP model, Pappas said he and Loudermilk expect to see about 10 patients a day. Regular visits will last about 30 minutes instead of five to 10, and annual visits will last about an hour.
Pappas said the MDVIP model gives him the opportunity to keep practicing as a productive physician rather than burning out.
What the membership covers
Membership in the practice costs $2,600 a year, according to the MDVIP profiles for Loudermilk and Pappas, with quarterly payments of $650 available.
The fee covers the annual MDVIP Wellness Program, which includes advanced screenings and tests focused on key areas of health that may help identify risk factors earlier.
Loudermilk said the yearly physical at their office includes an EKG, peripheral vascular screening for arterial disease in the arms and legs, spirometry to test lung function, and a biometric screening that measures fat, muscle and water composition. He said the biometric screening is especially important for older patients and those taking GLP-1 weight-loss medications, to make sure they are not losing muscle.
The program also includes advanced cardiovascular inflammatory marker testing through the Cleveland HeartLab, which Loudermilk said is not covered by insurance.
“Our goal is to identify risk factors early, which may help reduce the chance of a serious cardiovascular event,” he said.
Loudermilk said the practice also offers a blood test panel that screens for a range of cancers.
Outside of the membership, the practice accepts Medicare, Tricare For Life and all major health insurance, and other visits and services are billed to insurance as usual.
“In our case, we accept insurances just like everybody else,” Loudermilk said. “Regular visits and covered services are billed to insurance as usual.”
Members also get same-day or next-day appointments, after-hours phone access to their doctor, telehealth visits and access to MDVIP’s national network. If a patient becomes ill while traveling, Pappas said a local MDVIP doctor can contact him before treating them.
Loudermilk said telehealth can help patients who live farther away, including those in Fort Walton Beach, handle issues such as an earache, a urinary tract infection or a lab review from home.
Both doctors said patients at the new practice will see a physician at every visit.
“If you sign up with me, you’re going to see me or Dr. Pappas,” Loudermilk said.
‘Thank you for your trust’
Pappas said his message to former patients is gratitude.
“Thank you for letting us be a part of your life,” he said. “Thank you for your trust and your confidence in our abilities to take care of you, and for being such awesome patients that made our profession, sometimes long days, so worthy and worthwhile and enjoyable.”
“And we would like to be able to continue that if you choose,” he added.
Loudermilk shared a similar message.
“Thank you for entrusting me with your health care over the last five years, and I would be honored to continue to provide that care in Destin,” he said.
The practice, at 4608 Opa-Locka Lane, Suite 300, in Destin, is expected to open in a couple of weeks and is accepting new patients. Staff members from their previous practice are joining them. Loudermilk said he was able to bring his nursing staff, Beth Carpenter and Julie Huggins, with him to the new practice.
Prospective patients can find more information and videos on the MDVIP profiles for Dr. John Loudermilk and Dr. Chris Pappas or by calling 850.904.5387.
The doctors plan to offer free meet-and-greets, and Pappas said they will hold an open house every afternoon for about the first three months so people can stop by, meet the staff and talk with either doctor.
“We want them to see what it’s like before they make that decision,” Pappas said.
