No insurance required: Direct primary care provider
R-Health recently hung its shingle at 15th and Walnut Streets in Center City.
In some ways, direct primary care is simply a revived version of the old-school family doctor. It's a practice that provides basic, affordable primary care directly to consumers without the bureaucratic red-tape or expense of health insurance companies. In fact, DPC providers don't accept insurance at all. Instead customers either pay a monthly membership fee or pay cash for each visit.
"Employers and individuals are really looking for innovative solutions when it comes to health care right now," says R-Health founder Mason Reiner. "The costs continue to rise. Quality and convenience is sort of suspect, at best. I think it's really a ripe time for health care innovation."
R-Health offers a $79 monthly membership plan for individuals; there's no co-pay or deductible to speak of. (Participants often pair this coverage with a health savings account or high-deductible insurance plan, in case of emergency or major complications.) By doing away with the time-intensive paperwork required by insurance companies, doctors are able to spend as much as 30 to 60 minutes with each patient. R-Health physicians also make themselves available by phone, email and teleconference.
The company currently has just seven employees -- four on the clinical team and three at the corporate level -- but R-Health's goal is to become the leading provider of direct primary care in the Mid-Atlantic region.
"We really believe that the key to improving health-care quality while also reducing costs is to put the physician-patient relationship back at the forefront of primary care," says Reiner.
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Mason Reiner, R-Health