This story from Becker’s Health IT newsletter is packed full of meaning for the virtual healthcare sector. Even as the primary care delivery model described in the story would seem to make practical sense (imagine Minute Clinic meets a food truck), the reality of patient engagement patterns for typical non-emergency care snuck-up on this pilot project and (we surmise) decimated its economics. The paradox for primary care innovators might be encompassed in the following Q&A with an imaginary primary care consumer:

Provider: “When do you need primary care?”

Consumer: “When I don’t feel well”

Provider: “And when does that happen?”

Consumer: “Whenever I don’t feel well”.

The DocGo “primary care food truck” is like an airplane needing to fill seats at a certain density and RPU in order to make a profit. But in this use case, there was simply no way to “fill seats” in a predictable way and the unit economics – even at full capacity – were not nearly enough to cover the fixed costs involved.

So what is the takeaway? We actually like the DocGo concept and don’t think it should be abandoned. But the “retail” placement angle probably won’t deliver. Back to the white board!

Or perhaps the Dollar General/DocGo strategy is flawed in a more fundamental way: fully-virtualized care delivery works as a business model since it concentrates care fulfillment while distributing care access. Dollar General/DocGo tried to deploy a model that concentrates BOTH care fulfillment and care access. Read more here.

Most industry watchers were confident that Congress would continue to support innovation related to virtual delivery of healthcare services. While the this demonstration of legislative support for virtual care still has a ways to go before formal approval, the passing of this legislation out of committee is an excellent sign. Read more about this development here. (credit to Becker’s Health)

This is a solid article about rising benefits costs, but we think the comments about “Delayed and Deferred Care” should be a wake-up call for all employers . Anyone keeping track of worker’s true out-of-pocket cost to engage with the health care system knows these costs keep workers from accessing care until health issues are serious. By that point, workers are missing work, losing wages, and no-one wins. In our own research, 50% of workers polled called this issue out. Read the Included Health article here.

Solid research from our friends at GEM Sleep about the very real costs of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Remarkable that a condition that affects nearly 20% of working American men and women gets so little attention. Yet the ROI on treating this condition should make sleep therapy a must-have option for Employer health care benefits plans. Read more of GEM Sleep’s research here.

Self-driving cars are now common across major US cities, why not Ai-enhanced healthcare pods? Are we ready to walk into an automated cube for a check-up? Forward and their impressive roster of investors think we are. Read about it here.

Sometimes it’s what you don’t know that leads to a significant breakthrough.  The journey from “it’s just not done that way” to “this makes just too much sense to do it any other way” can be a rocky one.

Virtual Care Insights is meant to assist in this journey by highlighting ideas and initiatives that  “bend the curve” in favor of lower healthcare costs and better health services access.  Some of the content posted here will be highly practical, some conceptual, and some provocative. Our goal is that all of the content you find here will be useful.

We’ve been through our share of innovation cycles both inside and outside of healthcare to understand that some “innovations” are just not very good ideas to begin with.  The hype-cycle in virtual healthcare is alive and well, and we hope the radar we’ve developed regarding innovation’s essential trade-offs will be of some value here.

No endorsements or criticisms of the people or companies or ideas we highlight should be assumed.  We’re just pointing out things that to us, as operators and technologists, seem to be worth knowing for those working in an around the virtual care sector.

Each posting will be introduced with some brief commentary intended to provide context and, occasionally, our point of view.  

Thanks for reading.