Subscriptions used to conjure up images of paper inserts obnoxiously littering the floor while you skimmed the latest issue of People magazine. Today, subscriptions have crept into nearly every corner of our lives and have transformed entire industries. Perhaps you cut your cable and are binging the latest hit TV show via entertainment subscription—which you promptly cancel after the lackluster season finale.
Bored with your car? Maybe you ditched it for a car subscription and are rotating your ride weekly.
And chances are excellent that you’re subscribed to services that deliver groceries—and virtually anything else for sale—to your doorstep with no minimum purchase or delivery fees required.
You have endless choices conveniently at your fingertips and the ability to cancel when you’re done.
We’ve grown comfortable paying for these subscriptions everywhere else in our lives, why can’t we do the same with our healthcare?
Concierge healthcare, also known as direct primary care, allows patients to pay a monthly or yearly fee to receive benefits such as same-day appointments, video and call visits, emails and texts with their doctor, all without any extra cost to them or their insurance.
One advantage of this model is access. As we discussed previously here in Voice, it can be difficult for traditional insurance companies to fairly and correctly charge patients for virtual services. Now imagine your doctor being available to answer your questions by text without any additional cost or paperwork?
“I like to text my nurse and talk to her casually – I like to be able to call my doctor and ask him a question. I like to be able to have my pharmacist reach me by different mediums,” said Jaimie Clark, director of innovation and venture strategy at Catalyst by Wellstar.
Jaimie points out other benefits to the subscription model over the fee-for-service structure currently in place, such as knowing how much a procedure, visit or suite of services would cost ahead of time. Because you’re working directly with your provider, there are no outstanding bills your insurance didn’t cover.
And like subscribing to watch that hit TV show and unsubscribing when it’s done, what if you could subscribe to different care packages as your healthcare needs change – such as families planning to become pregnant?
“[Imagine] pregnancy as one flat fee, and you know that you will be taken care of from head to toe, and if anything goes wrong or if you have a perfectly seamless, healthy pregnancy, you know through that pregnancy journey that everything is included under that one fee, so you know exactly what you’re getting,” Jaimie said.
While there are benefits for generally healthy individuals, subscription needs, options and costs may vary for patients with chronic, complex medical issues. In these cases, it’s important to research all options before choosing a particular service.
We’d like to hear from you. Would a healthcare subscription model work for your life? Let us know in the comments and answer our current survey.
Exploring Subscription Models in Healthcare
Hear Jaimie Clark’s vision for a subscription model helping families planning to become pregnant.
Survey Results: Subscriptions in Healthcare
Thank you for taking our Subscription in Healthcare survey. We had over 800 responses! Check out the results:
Your Voice
Claudia shared that one of her friends once went skydiving without insurance because they couldn’t afford the hospital visit if anything went wrong. Do you or those in your life identify with that statement?
