Over the last couple of years, we have seen the rise of urgent care systems. While the hospitals and healthcare systems have been slow to include them, it is safe to say that the urgent care clinics that seem to pop-up faster than Walgreens and CVS on every corner are here to stay for good.

What makes urgent care centers more popular over the hospital’s emergency room? According to Alan Ayers, National Expert in Urgent Care and Occupational Medicine:

Unlike the hospital’s inpatient care model, urgent care uses a retail model of health care that emphasizes the patient experience through walk-in, on-demand convenience; extended evening and weekend hours; short waits with rapid throughput; and transparent, hassle-free transactions. Many hospitals attempt to apply the rigid work rules and compliance requirements of the hospital setting to their urgent care centers, leading to inefficiencies and lost revenue.

Can in-home care answer the consumers’ demand for the hospitals, healthcare systems and minute clinics to evolve? 

While Uber Health tries to solve the problem of how to get you to the hospital, new startups like Heal are taking it a step further by offering in-home care. It is the same model of healthcare that we are familiar with in the TV hit drama series Royal Pains.

The in-home care is more than just a convenient doctor on call. “Its larger mission is to transform the broken health care system throughout the value chain,” said Nick Desai, CEO, and co-founder of Heal. “We do this by freeing doctors from the burden of high administrative costs that force them to see 40 patients a day, by helping patients get convenient care at an affordable price, and by cutting unnecessary medical costs.”

It is all happening on your mobile device. Get the app, set it up with personal data including your credit card and insurance info, select an appointment time, and a doctor is guaranteed to be there within an hour.  Unlike in Royal Pains where the in-home calls were only for the elite of the Hamptons, the price for a house call is a straightforward fee of $99. The visit is often the cost of a co-pay.

Sunlit Cove Healthcare Consultants

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Related: Revenue Cycle Interim Management