Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq:WBA) invested over $6 billion in VillageMD. Humana (NYSE: HUM) invested $100 million in Heal. Patina raised $57 million in Series A.
All of those companies – VillageMD, Heal and Patina – have two things in common: They are primary care providers, and they are more focused than their peers on the home as a setting for care.
Each of those companies has explained their reasoning for doing so, both from a clinical and business standpoint. A new survey from Deft Research and Patina has further solidified at least some of their reasoning.
Of the close to 1,000 senior Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries polled, 57% found the idea of a primary care team built around their needs appealing. Specifically, the survey showed positive receptivity to a team-based approach delivered in the home and virtually.
Unpaid caregivers liked the idea even more – over 85% found it appealing or very appealing.
“The biggest takeaway is that the current health care system is not working, and it’s not living up to the needs of older adults,” Patina CEO Jack Stoddard told Home Health Care News. “They’re not getting the kind of relationship that they would like. They’re not getting the kind of personalized care model that they would like. Their expectations are relatively low. So there is very high demand and interest in a model of care that is built around them.”
The senior survey respondents were individuals aged 64 to 85 that are – or soon will be – enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. The research was conducted between Aug. 23 and Oct. 7 of this year.
Many of the respondents also said they felt “something was missing” in their primary care plans and that the relationships they had with their primary care providers felt transactional.
“Traditional primary care, it is very transactional in nature, and it’s about dealing with the issue at hand. Then you kind of go back to your life,” Stoddard said. “It is very disease or condition-specific, instead of understanding the needs of the whole person. It’s not as personal as people would like.”
Most respondents reported that sort of model of care would be desirable. Over 40% indicated it was “not at all similar” to the current model of care they were receiving.
The team-based approach, as well as the hybrid model that involves both in-person home visits and virtual visits, is one of the things that makes Patina unique, Stoddard said.
But it’s also the idea of being a proactive primary care provider versus a reactive one.
“You give people a team of clinicians who know your values, your goals, your circumstance and your context,” Stoddard said. “It’s proactive. It is whole-person. It thinks about you, including your behavioral health and social issues, as well as the barriers to accessing or complying with care. It is comprehensive in the sense that it looks at your entire journey.”
The idea of bringing a more proactive and community-based approach to primary care is promising. That’s reflected by the millions – and billions – of dollars that have been invested in it by investors over the last couple of years.
But it’s also new, and with anything new, adoption could take time. Right now, though, Stoddard is confident in what he’s seen from an adoption perspective.
“The other part of the survey that I thought was quite interesting is the readiness to try it,” he said. “Any time you’re bringing something that is new or different to the market, there’s a traditional adoption curve. The data I thought was interesting was that over 10% of the population is willing to try this, and then another 20% to 30% have the confidence that [this model] is going to work effectively.”
Nearly four in 10 of the seniors surveyed also said they had met with a doctor via telehealth over the past two years.
“The results from the research reinforced other findings we have seen recently, “ George Dippel, the EVP of Deft Research, said in a statement. “Our other studies have shown that COVID fears are not the sole reason why seniors are turning to virtual health today. More than half of the virtual visits this year were sought, at least in part, due to the desire for convenience.”
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