Andy Bonner, CEO and Founder of Healthcare2U, was invited to speak on the “Self-Funded with Spencer” podcast on Direct Primary Care (DPC). Bonner spoke about why he thinks DPC is the future, how he started his DPC journey, and how his company Healthcare2U is making waves in healthcare as the nation’s fastest-growing hybrid DPC membership.
Click here to watch the podcast.
To learn more about Healthcare2U’s DPC membership, check out our blogs.
The holidays are here, and something that’s on a lot of people’s minds is food and health. Does turkey actually make you sleepy? Does sugar make kids hyper? Are the holidays really the most stressful time of the year?
We sat down with Healthcare2U’s co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Rodriguez, to ask him if he thinks these holiday health “myths” are true or false.
We’ve heard this theory numerous times, but it is, in fact, false. Tryptophan, the chemical in turkey that people are referring to that causes sleepiness, doesn’t make you sleepy on its own. What does make you sleepy, however, is when you eat foods that contain this chemical and a large number of carbohydrates. This includes carb-heavy foods like bread, desserts, potatoes, etc. So no, you won’t fall asleep if you eat turkey on its own, but if you add a whole Thanksgiving meal on top of it, you might need a nap!
Research shows that while some people may believe children experience a “sugar rush” where they become hyperactive, studies show that is not the case. Doctors have surmised that the extra energy is due to emotions of excitement, not from extra sugar in their system. Having said that, it is still not advised to give children large amounts of sugar at once, as it isn’t healthy!
Unfortunately, this myth is very true. Most American adults – 74 percent – say that Christmas is stressful, and 55 percent say it is the most stressful holiday of the year. A large percentage of the stress is due to the extra money spent, preparing one’s home for guests, and spending time with family.
Were you surprised by any of these myths? We hope you enjoyed us debunking some classic holiday health myths, and if you’re interested in learning more about how to manage holiday stress, check out our blog from the last holiday season or a WAFB-9 News interview Dr. Rodriguez was featured in.
Press Release: Healthcare2U Introduces Direct Primary Care Advantage
Publication: Insurance Newsnet
AUSTIN, TX. September 21, 2023 – Healthcare2U announces the introduction of its DPCadvantage initiative, a new zero-dollar office visit fee healthcare membership. This initiative arms health brokers with an innovative solution to help employers contain costs related to their healthcare offerings as it diverts claims against major medical insurance plans.
“We understand the challenges associated with receiving quality healthcare and are diligent in our pursuit to make it affordable for everyone. Our zero-dollar visit fee DPCadvantage initiative is a necessary step toward reshaping the healthcare experience for our members,” said Andy Bonner, President and CEO of Healthcare2U. “Our goal is to empower individuals to prioritize their health and seek a path toward healthier lives.”
Read the full press release here: Insurance Newsnet
Healthcare2U’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Rodriguez, is featured in a news story with Katie Aupperle on their “Focus at Four” segment discussing how Direct Primary Care can help fix the problem with current healthcare, something that a recent poll stated many Americans are dissatisfied with.
Katie Aupperle: Unexpected costs, access challenges, and long wait times. The barriers to seeing a doctor can stand in the way of receiving healthcare. A new poll finds that public satisfaction with the US healthcare system is remarkably low. Many are now looking for ways to make improvements- this is where direct primary care comes in.
To explain more about what this is, we’re joined by Dr. John Rodriguez. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today. We wanted to start off, what did we see from the recent poll about satisfaction with our healthcare?
Dr. John Rodriguez: Yeah, I mean, again, to me, no surprise. We’ve been seeing this decline for quite a number of years now. It’s just the “hurry up healthcare system” we’re in now. Everyone’s in a hurry- doctors are in a hurry to see as many patients as they can, people ae trying to fight insurance companies because of the poor reimbursement, etc. So, we’re seeing the inevitable result is just poor patient satisfaction. When you’re only allowed seven minutes with your physician to maybe go over two or three items, it can be pretty frustrating in terms of the care received.
Katie Aupperle: What are some concerns that we’re seeing from people?
Dr. John Rodriguez: One of the concerns is that “the doctor didn’t listen to me”, right? So, patients walk out of the exam room just feeling like their questions weren’t answered and their care wasn’t appropriate. They’re left kind of in the dark in some sense, and good or bad, the patient is not happy and then they may seek care somewhere else or find another physician or clinic to what they think is receiving better care, but unfortunately, can be the same song and dance from clinic to clinic.
Katie Aupperle: What are some steps that you are hoping can be taken to improve circumstances?
Dr. John Rodriguez: Well with Healthcare2U, we advocate more of a direct relationship with your provider. The sad thing is, at the end of the day, it’s about trying to make a living. When you’re not paid enough by insurance companies and third-party payers, the quality of care suffers. We’re trying to bring more quality back in healthcare and make it more direct, like our direct primary care model, which is advocates for the relationship between patient and physician. That really puts the responsibility on the physician to provide that better care without having to worry about filing claim after claim after claim.
Katie Aupperle: How can this make a difference for patients?
Dr. John Rodriguez: For patients, it’s much better experience. The patient is allowed more time with the physician or their primary care provider. Instead of seven minutes, now it can go really as long as 15 to 30 minutes, if need be, to listen to the complaints of the patient. And the physician is obliged at that point because he’s now in a better financial position to be able to take care of that patient and provide the care they need, whether it’s further testing, less testing and saving the system money because the physician is able to listen, etc. I think that’s the key in all this is that the quality of the patient care is heightened as well as the value of the care given is improved on, and that there’s not a lot of wasted testing, a lot of wasted referrals, etc. which adds to the cost of healthcare in general.
Katie Aupperle: Are there any steps that patients can take to improve their experience?
Dr. John Rodriguez: Absolutely. I think number one is being patient with your current provider. Understanding that there’s a lot of burnout amongst physicians. They’re just very unhappy and feel like they’re trapped., so a lot of physicians just are not capable of giving the care they would like to give. I think that’s the frustrating thing in all of this. So, what patients can do is just be patient with their provider and understand that they’re going through some struggles. But at the end of the day, really what can the patient do, if they’re looking for better care for themselves, is to seek out a practice that has a DPC sort of a model. In other words, a cash direct model where the patient would pay a small monthly fee to be in that practice as a membership, thus allowing that provider to give the care that that patient deserves.
Katie Aupperle: Dr. Rodriguez, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and walk us through this.
To view more helpful Healthcare2U videos, check out our YouTube Channel!
Article: Customizable Benefit Solutions Can Deliver Impressive Cost Savings
Publication: America’s Benefit Specialist
Featured: Andy Bonner
Healthcare2U Co-Founder, President, and CEO Andy Bonner recently sat down to write an article for America’s Benefit Specialist. He spoke about the struggles employers are currently facing when trying to provide quality, affordable care to employees, and how direct primary care (DPC) is one solution that is gaining momentum.
DPC is experiencing an impressive annual growth rate of 36%, emerging as an affordable and more accessible non-traditional healthcare alternative. Healthcare2U’s DPC membership offers nationwide, unlimited access to board-certified family care physicians or internists, and includes unlimited access to primary and urgent care, bilingual virtual care, an annual physical with four labs, and early-stage chronic disease management for 13 prevalent chronic diseases.
DPC is a solution that might not be known by every company, but should.
Read the full article here: America’s Benefit Specialist
Why are physicians making the decision to switch to a Direct Primary Care (DPC) model for their practice? In part three of our three-part blog series, Healthcare2U’s Dr. John Rodriguez shares why he moved to a DPC model and some hesitations he had before the switch. Don’t forget to check out our first blog in this series, which discusses the benefits of working with this type of model, and the second, which discusses “bad debt” for physicians and why some are moving over to the DPC model.
A: Many years ago in San Antonio, Texas, I started a traditional fee-for-service clinic. I became a preferred provider on the main commercial insurance plans and began to see patients under those contracts. After filing claims, I noticed that the payments were rather low. I felt that for the time I spent with patients, I was not appropriately reimbursed, if I was at all. I also began to notice a great deal of bad debt. Many insurance companies were not paying the bill, and I had to spend a lot of time on the phone trying to find out why. Having those struggles as a practitioner, I began to deal with the true frustration of running a practice. I saw many of my local physician friends struggle and eventually close their practices. I knew that this could be in my future as well, but I was really set on trying to keep my clinic open and continuing to take care of patients at all costs.
Several years ago, the DPC model began to show up on my radar through the internet, web searches, etc. There were a few physicians here in San Antonio who were beginning to do it. Although their price points were much higher, I felt that I could do the same thing at a much lower monthly cost and take care of most of my patients without them breaking the bank and allowing me to keep my doors open. This new DPC practice was leading to very satisfied patients and was creating a lifestyle that I was happy with.
My practice was not driven by how many patients I could see in a day but by quality and cost-effectiveness because many of these patients either had no insurance or had high deductibles. Everything they had to pay for came out of their back pockets, so I had to be very mindful of the cost impact they would experience with prescription medications, testing, etc. That journey has led me to a place where I firmly believe the DPC model works. It’s made for every primary care physician, and if possible, they should adopt this model in some form or fashion in their practice.
A: As you can imagine, the horror stories that many physicians and residents hear of having their own practice have dissuaded them from having a private practice clinic. Many become employed with hospitals or insurance companies, and most become very unhappy being just an employee. The thought of starting one’s own practice leads to hesitation because of a fear of the unknown; “how do I do it? What do I do? Whom do I talk to?” All that can frighten many away from DPC, but I believe if you do your due diligence- if you read about it and talk to other physicians who are doing it- you develop your own model, it can be done. Seek out good legal counsel to make sure that everything is appropriate with what you’re going to do. If you have the desire and the drive to make healthcare better and do what’s right for the system, you will be successful and, I believe, have a quality of life and a practice that most physicians would dream of.
As mentioned in the first blog, DPC is growing in popularity because of its benefits to physicians and patients. In addition to those benefits, Healthcare2U’s DPC focuses on the benefits for employers, helping them contain their healthcare costs. Now offering even more benefits than before with our new Direct Primary Care advantage (DPCa) product, you’ll see why Dr. John and many others agree DPC is a growing trend that’s here to stay.
With DPCa, you’ll receive:
DPCa advocates for preventative care to lower costs for employers and keep employees happy and healthy. With our PAL, employees are also guided through every step of their benefits and have a bilingual medical professional who will triage and book their appointments, so they’re never left to figure out their membership alone.
If you’re an employer or broker and would like to learn more about Healthcare2U’s DPC memberships, check out some of our other blogs or contact us.
Figuring out the right model of care for you is something physicians can struggle with. There are pros and cons to both, but studies show the Direct Primary Care (DPC) model is rising in popularity. In part two of our three-part blog series, Healthcare2U’s Dr. John Rodriguez shares why he thinks physicians are distancing themselves from the traditional fee-for-service care model and some of the “bad debt” they can carry. If you haven’t read it yet, don’t forget to check out our first blog in this series, which discusses the benefits of working with a DPC model.
A: Currently, the majority of clinics operate under the fee-for-service arrangement with insurance companies. In other words, we see a patient, submit that visit to the insurance company, they reevaluate the charges at a significantly reduced rate, and if we are fortunate, they send a payment to us maybe 30 days later. Unfortunately, those payments have not kept up with the pace of medical inflation. Over the years, many physicians have had to leave health care altogether or become employed by hospitals or insurance companies.
Some practices have adopted a DPC model, which involves receiving payment from either the employer or individuals for healthcare services. Payments can be structured as monthly memberships, or individuals can pay per visit. Considering many high deductible plans, it makes a lot of sense to engage a physician practice under a DPC model because that’s going to, in the long run, save money and keep you healthier because you have meaningful and quality time with the provider.
There are different types of arrangements that can be made through hybrid models. This can be a combination of partial insurance payments and/or a membership payment in addition. All this helps to lower the cost of health care and improve the time spent with patients, which improves patient satisfaction as well as physician satisfaction.
A: Bad debt is one of the many struggles physicians have suffered with for years, and if it’s not dealt with properly, can break a clinic. That debt is made up of two components: insurance companies not paying their bills or patients not paying their share of the bill. Ultimately, it’s the physician or the clinic who goes unpaid. To try and overcome it, physicians must hire more employees to try and capture that bad debt – you would hope and think that we shouldn’t have to do this. Unfortunately, debt collectors do exist in society, and it’s even more problematic in health care because we have a battle of wages against insurance companies, which are never nice to independent practices. Again, bad debt will make or break a clinic, and to be able to be paid for your services is extremely important.
Make sure to stay tuned when we feature our third and final blog with Dr. Rodriguez, where we discuss how he started his journey of working in a DPC practice. For more information on Healthcare2U’s Direct Primary Care membership, check out some of our other blogs.
While the cost of goods and housing continues to rise, so does the cost of healthcare. The cost of other necessary items has increased, such as groceries rising 20 percent since 2021 and a significant surge in the cost of utilities and gas in 2022. Healthcare costs have been steadily rising since 2012, with the average monthly cost of traditional insurance being $659 in 2022. This has resulted in financial stress for many Americans. Of those insured, more than two-fifths of working adults consider themselves “inadequately insured”. How can we reconcile spending so much money on health insurance that isn’t fulfilling our needs?
In this blog, we’ll discuss why health insurance plans have a hard time being inclusive, why they’re not the best option for today’s workforce, and how traditional plans and Direct Primary Care (DPC) memberships can partner together to create the perfect solution for everyone.
The soaring costs of healthcare in the United States have become a major concern for individuals and communities across the nation. With health insurance premiums reaching unprecedented levels, finding a sustainable solution has become a priority.
The typical cost per year employers paid for employee insurance in 2022 was $7,911 for single coverage and $22,463 for family coverage. Employees and employers contribute this money, but sometimes the benefit is not utilized, resulting in a waste of finances for both parties.
There are five main factors that affect a plan’s monthly premium: location, age, tobacco use, plan category, and whether the plan covers dependents. These factors make it difficult for employers to keep up with the expensive premiums, as each employee affects the cost differently.
Traditional insurance simply isn’t working for today’s modern workforce. Apart from traditional insurance being expensive, it’s also confusing. Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they’ve run into problems when using health insurance within the past year. This includes problems with denied claims, provider networks, and pre-authorization. Through traditional insurance, employers also suffer from surprise bills like “shock claims”, which are claims that are unexpected financial blows to the insured.
Traditional insurance doesn’t prioritize the patient’s experience, affecting people’s motivation to book appointments and seek the medical care they need. Whether it’s because of a lack of flexibility like virtual options, or doctors not having ample time to discuss underlying issues with the patient, traditional insurance doesn’t foster the patient/doctor relationship, and that leads to people being less inclined to access care.
Traditional health insurance is rooted in fee-for-service delivery, not value-based care
Traditional insurance operates by a monthly payment to cover the health plan, with the member paying a fee for each service. The insured are required to meet a deductible before their insurance starts pitching in, and you can also get hit with unexpected bills after treatment or service.
The cost of health insurance and the level of satisfaction people feel toward it are also not equal, and it doesn’t seem like insurance companies have any interest in helping solve this problem. Fee-for-service delivery treats the insured like they’re just another number, but with DPC, the patient/physician relationship is at the forefront, and employers know their employees are receiving quality care.
DPC is a healthcare membership that gives its members access to unlimited primary care for a low monthly fee. DPC, at its core, is centered around chronic disease prevention and championing the doctor-patient relationship, supporting members to live a healthy, happy life.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the benefits of DPC:
With DPC, you’ll receive continuity of care and a physician who takes the time to listen to you and assess your concerns, whether it’s virtually or in person. This, combined with traditional insurance, allows employees to receive day-to-day care as well as peace of mind for more serious health concerns.
DPC is an answer to many challenges we are facing in healthcare today. To learn more about DPC and how it can partner with traditional insurance, click here.
Navigating the healthcare system can come with several challenges for both doctors and patients. Physicians can encounter hurdles when providing care, patients can be overwhelmed when receiving care. A viable solution has been Direct Primary Care (DPC). This model is growing in popularity because it provides a multitude of benefits for physicians and patients. In a three-part blog series, Healthcare2U’s Dr. John Rodriguez shares his insight on what the current burdens are regarding healthcare, some difficult barriers physicians and patients are currently facing, and his perspective on Direct Primary Care.
Q: What are the benefits of working with a direct primary care model?
A: The current fee-for-service model of seeing a patient, then billing that to the insurance company, having that re-priced, and then sent back to us maybe in 30 days, if we’re lucky, has not kept up with our costs of running a healthcare facility. The direct primary care model has been very attractive to many practices because doctors receive payments on the day of service or through a pre-arranged and low monthly retainer fee – this is a novel concept! It’s very attractive to most practices because we feel as though we do finally get paid for our work, and we get paid in a timely fashion. This helps us to keep our overhead much lower in the form of fewer staff as well as being able to provide the care that patients truly need and desire. Being able to receive payments from a cash perspective on time and at the prices that we feel are fair is an extremely attractive way to practice health care. Direct primary care is becoming more advantageous and beginning to take off, not to mention its prices are coming down.
Q: What are some burdens that physician-owned practices must work through regarding insurance?
A: One of the biggest challenges that we have faced for years is poor insurance reimbursement. We have to make our payments when it comes to rent, salaried employees, hourly employees, tax payments, malpractice insurance payments, etc. All these come at a heavy price to us, and unfortunately, insurance reimbursements don’t keep up with the rate of inflation. Now that a physician has dwindled visit time down to about seven minutes, there’s just not enough time to adequately deal with many conditions. This leads to poor patient satisfaction surveys and poor outcomes, and in some cases, important diseases can be missed or misdiagnosed. The stress that comes with this for the providers has forced many to leave the arena of health care, and now they become employed by insurance companies, hospitals, or just leave health care in general.
Stay tuned…
Make sure to stay tuned when we feature our second blog with Dr. Rodriguez where we discuss fee-for-service clinics and the “bad debt” that many physicians carry. For more information on Healthcare2U’s Direct Primary Care membership, read our blog.
A company provides its employees with healthcare benefits – now what?
It is imperative that employees understand how to use these benefits easily and efficiently to get the most out of them. A survey conducted by LIMRA found that 53% of employees felt their employer didn’t effectively communicate their medical benefits. When an employee understands their benefits, the healthcare utilization rate increases, employees’ overall well-being increases, and healthcare expenditure by the company can even decrease.
In this blog, we’ll discuss why it’s important that employees understand their health benefits, how employers can aid in benefits education, and a solution that takes the stress out of benefits education and lowers costs even more for employers.
When employees understand their health benefits, they’re more likely to use them correctly. Knowing about and properly using benefits increases the overall well-being of employees as they are receiving the care they need to stay healthy and happy. Benefits education helps both employees and employers. A MetLife study reported that 51% of employees who feel their health is holistically considered were more likely to continue working for their current organization for at least one more year. This is just the tip of the iceberg when uncovering the residual effects benefits education has for companies.
When employers prioritize benefits education, employees feel empowered to take charge of their health. When an employee doesn’t understand their benefits, they sometimes put off getting the care they need. For many health issues, namely chronic conditions, employees who put off care can end up costing employers a great deal of money down the road. By seeking medical attention and taking control of their wellness journey, employees can improve their mental health, which increases productivity.
Healthcare utilization only works if you work it- this means that employers must aid in benefits education for their employees. Employers should care about benefits education as it can directly result in a decrease in spending for employees and the company. Setting up a meeting to discuss benefits is a great tool that helps employees understand what they’re getting with their benefits. Some benefits companies also offer benefits education campaigns and periodic check-ins, which takes the pressure off employers to coordinate everything themselves.
Another easy yet effective way to help employees learn and utilize their benefits is to have literature available either in the company’s intranet/SharePoint or similar platform or in a communal area in the office with the contact information for the company that is providing health benefits. This way, employees can easily access that information instead of having to search for it. The fewer obstacles a person has to navigate, the more likely they are to access it.
Although these simple actions can make a significant difference in benefits utilization, if the foundation isn’t right, it won’t matter. Choosing the right health benefits for each company is the first step in providing the best experience for employees.
If companies are looking for an affordable healthcare option, Direct primary care (DPC) memberships have been steadily rising in popularity due to their higher utilization rates and ease of use. DPC is a type of healthcare membership where patients pay their physician directly for their primary care services, as opposed to paying an insurance company.
DPC lowers a company’s cost containment by operating on a fixed monthly fee. This allows a company more clarity when trying to plan financially for the future. On average, employers can save up to 20% annually in healthcare costs by adopting a DPC model. To take that a step further, proper benefits utilization can help save even more in healthcare costs. Since DPC also focuses on preventative care, companies can worry less about shock claims, which are expensive claims that aren’t common, but employers must pay when they occur (i.e., cancer treatment, organ transplants, etc.)
Below are a few examples of benefits utilization that offer more savings:
DPC is a lower-cost healthcare option for companies looking to cut down on expensive and, in many cases, wasteful costs associated with healthcare. Benefits utilization is another necessary ingredient to healthcare savings that is often overlooked by companies as it can take time and effort to plan. To learn more about DPC and benefits education, click here.
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