Article: The Rise of Direct Primary Care in America Publication: KevinMD.com Featured: Andy Bonner
Andy Bonner, CEO and Founder of Healthcare2U, recently wrote an article for KevinMD.com about the rise of Direct Primary Care (DPC).
Bonner discussed in the article how it’s rising specifically in America, how DPC puts patients first, how it enhanced the doctor-patient relationship, and more. He explains how DPC has been rising for years, and that it is rapidly gaining momentum as a viable alternative to the traditional fee-for-service healthcare system.
Healthcare2U showed up at the Salvation Army in Austin, TX, complete with Santa, his helper, and a trailer full of toys.
The company adopted a total of 75 angels and ten toy tags and even earned a feature in a FOX 7 News story. This is the second year the company has participated in this holiday event.
To check out more coverage of Healthcare2U in the news, check out our “In the News” section on our website.
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.
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.”
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.
Transcript
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!
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.
Article: CEO Andy Bonner Talks with The Silicon Review About His Vision to Expand Healthcare Access Publication: The Silicon Review Featured: Andy Bonner
Healthcare2U Co-Founder, President, and CEO Andy Bonner recently sat down for an interview with The Silicon Review. He shared his vision of revolutionizing healthcare delivery through affordable and accessible primary and urgent care. In this interview, Andy elaborates on his challenges when launching Healthcare2U, how he overcame them, and what sets Healthcare2U apart from other direct primary care companies.
Today, Healthcare2U’s membership program allows unlimited access to board-certified family care physicians or internists nationwide through their Private Physician Network™. Healthcare2U’s plan 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.
Third-party administrators, carriers, and brokers partner with Healthcare2U. The nationwide DPC membership provides clients an alternative to primary care access via traditional insurance. Healthcare2U is especially attractive to employers who offer high-deductible health plans as it allows for access to day-to-day care and eliminates the need to file a claim against a member’s major medical plan for care provided within the DPC ecosystem.
Andy’s mission to transform primary care access and enhance the overall patient experience is evident in this interview.
Article: Healthcare2U Enables Individuals with Modest Incomes to Afford Primary Care Consultations for Early Detection of Major Health Conditions Publication: CEOCFO Magazine Featured: Andy Bonner
Recently, our Co-Founder, President, and CEO, Andy Bonner, sat with Lynn Flosse of CEOCFO Magazine to share his vision to redefine the delivery of healthcare by providing affordable and accessible primary care services to individuals across the United States. Andy was inspired to found Healthcare2U in 2013 after an uncoordinated healthcare experience resulted in cancer going undiagnosed. He aimed to develop a nationwide program based on the Direct Primary Care (DPC) model, which makes primary care consultations affordable and accessible for everyone.
Today, Healthcare2U’s membership offers primary care in all 50 states and provides unlimited access to family care physicians or internists through their Private Physician Network™. The plan includes the following:
Patient advocacy line for members
Unlimited 24/7 bilingual telehealth for $0 out-of-pocket cost
Unlimited in-office visits for $10 per visit
Unlimited urgent care visits at $25 per visit
Annual physical examinations with four basic labs
Early-stage chronic disease management for 13 prevalent chronic diseases.
Through benefits brokers, Healthcare2U serves employers as a supplement to existing health plans for their employees. For example, members with high deductible health plans can benefit from Healthcare2U because the membership will serve as a gap solution, providing valuable day-to-day healthcare that is otherwise not covered by their major medical plan.
Get to know Andy and learn about his passion for revolutionizing primary care access and improving the overall patient experience by addressing the flaws in the traditional fee-for-service healthcare model.
Healthcare2U’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Rodriguez, is featured in a news story with Amanda Hill speaking about how the doctor shortage, which is set to get even worse in the next few years, will affect the US.
Transcript
News Center Maine: Have you noticed it takes a little longer to schedule an appointment with your primary care physician right now? Or once you’re at that appointment, you feel rushed through it. Dr. John Rodriguez says it’s a problem nationwide, but it’s impacting every community, especially smaller ones.
Dr. Rodriguez: I see a lot of my friends, primary care friends, have called it quits. They’ve either left the scene already, they’re joining the big groups, they’ve left healthcare, or they’re working for insurance companies.
Amanda Hill: But why are primary care physicians leaving? Dr. John Rodriguez is the Chief Medical Officer of a direct primary care office. Essentially, it’s a practice that has either a membership fee or takes direct payment from the patient, cutting out the need for an insurance company. While it’s not an affordable option for everyone, Dr. Rodriguez says it does afford a more intimate relationship with patients and cuts down on overwhelming paperwork, which has become two reasons for doctor burnout.
Dr. Rodriguez: Your visits now are down to seven minutes on average. I mean, that’s fine if it’s a head cold, but if you’re dealing with three or four medical problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, that’s impossible to keep up with that in proper form.
Amanda Hill: Is there a concern for you- a misdiagnosis or something that’s missed in the appointment?
Dr. Rodriguez: Absolutely. And I’ve seen it. Sometimes I’m a second opinion doctor, so I’ll see patients from other offices, and as well-intended as they were, their diagnosis was off, and we come up with a different diagnosis. And again, I see it- they were in a hurry, the patient had a few complaints, and they didn’t think they were important, but they were.
Amanda Hill: The Association of American Medical Colleges projects that in 2034, the US will have shortages of between nearly 18,000 and 48,000 primary care physicians. That’s in just the next decade.
Dr. Rodriguez: I would bet that most of your listeners have probably experienced that already.
Amanda Hill: It’s not a new issue. About five years ago, we met Dr. Bill Med, who worked well beyond his retirement years in the town of Norway because he couldn’t find a replacement. Do you worry about what will happen to them when you leave?
Dr. Bill Med: Oh, yeah. That’s probably the main thing that’s continuing my work.
Amanda Hill: But there are changes being made. Dr. Med started working with Maine Health on a program to recruit more doctors to rural parts of the state. The question remains whether those changes are happening quickly enough.
Dr. Rodriguez: It’s going to get worse. And really, the issue is, you need the quarterback. You need someone who knows the healthcare system and how to maneuver through that. And if you don’t have that, it’s chaos.
Amanda Hill: So, some advice: if you’re losing your primary care physician, it’s worth asking the practice or the physician themselves if they’d refer you to someone else. We’ve also shared a link on our website with a list of direct primary care physicians in Maine if that is something you’re interested in.
To view more helpful Healthcare2U videos, check out our YouTube Channel!
Healthcare2U’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Rodriguez speaks with Doug Wagner about exciting strides being made in the development of a pill that could replace insulin for type 1 diabetes sufferers.
Interview Transcript
Wagner: Dr. John Rodriguez joins me next. If you’re a type 1 diabetic, you’ll want to listen to this. People may have the ability to take pills instead of using insulin shots to control their diabetes. It’s the WMT Morning Show with Doug Wagner on News Radio 600 WMT. On the Morning Show, it is 6:46. Welcome to your Tuesday, February 14th. Welcoming to the newsmaker line, a Texan has got to appreciate a little Stevie Ray Vaughn this early in the morning.
Dr. John Rodriguez joining me on the newsmaker line. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. I’ll introduce a little bit more about you and what you do, how you do with coming up. But I want my listeners to find out how important what you’re talking about is, as I was telling the story earlier, I’ve got a buddy I didn’t realize, a super athlete. He had type 1 diabetes all the way through. Even as a super athlete, as an adult, he had to have a transplant because of the effect type 1 diabetes had on his body, even though he was working hard to control it through insulin. What you’re going to tell us though is that type 1 diabetes may be able to be controlled in the future using pills instead of shots. How far in the future? Is this now, or not?
Dr. Rodriguez: Well, it’s just a little few more years far out, but the researchers at the University of British Columbia finally look like they’ve come up with a pill. Because, by the way, this has gone on for years. They studied the pill, and they can’t get it right. They think this time that they found a way to get the insulin into our systems that’s not going to break down and cause problems like the previous pills. So, the fact that they could put a pill between your cheek and gum and have it absorbed and have it almost a hundred percent absorbed, is amazing.
The applications are tremendous, right? So, you don’t have to carry around insulin in a refrigerator and constantly be giving yourself shots before or after a meal or bedtime, etc. I mean, it’s going to be a godsend to a lot of these young kids that have to do this- that’s a traumatic experience. So, it’s an awesome thing to see. We hope it’s going to come to fruition very soon, but it’s going to take time, just like any research product takes time. So, that’s coming.
Wagner: Dr. John Rodriguez is the Chief Medical Officer of Healthcare2U. Passionate about the care provided to you as patients, he manages all the care providers in Healthcare2U’s network of clinics. We were talking before we got on the air- you say that this may have application for type 2 diabetes down the line as well.
Dr. Rodriguez: Absolutely. Type 2, granted, it is a lifestyle, sadly enough. I mean, if we just get up, get off the couch, move, eat healthy, that’s going to fix our diabetes. But in the case that that can’t happen, and we have to inject with insulin, which is always a last resort, this is going to be much, much more palatable instead of a shot and carrying around insulin in a refrigerator. This is a way you can give yourself a pill before or after your meal to supplement that glucose load that you’re going to get. So, even in type 2, there are applications.
Wagner: It’s so interesting the way technology is allowing us to do things so much differently. And especially because I remember the first girl that I had a crush on was a type 1 diabetic. She’d be outside playing, and her mom would call her in for an insulin shot. Everybody else was having birthday cake, and she wasn’t. And I felt so badly for her.
But now with this insulin-mimicking molecule that can be developed in an oral pill, this can really allow for much more freedom.
Dr. Rodriguez: Absolutely. And then that’s the thing, I mean, we see our kids, and you love your kids, but to have a child with type 1 is just… It’s such a burden and a cross to carry. But this would make it a little easier when you can have that option.
Wagner: And it’s just amazing too, guys, because I was telling the story of the friend of mine from high school. He was a super athlete, a freak. The kid was five-nine, and he could get up way over the rim and dunk a basketball. He is still in super fit shape, but he had type 1 diabetes for all those years, and it just has started to ruin his kidneys. Is this something that is going to be able to help push back on that as well, the way that you have organ failure because of diabetes or not?
Dr. Rodriguez: Yeah, absolutely. And again, one of the cruxes of diabetes is the high sugar load, right? When you have high sugar loads in the bloodstream running around for months and years, it creates nerve damage and vascular damage to the body that creates your heart attacks and your strokes and your kidney failures, etc. So, that’s the nice thing about the pill. It’s going to help reduce that.
To view more helpful Healthcare2U videos, check out our YouTube Channel!
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