GladdMD routinely offers hour-long visits—or even more time if it is needed. “I can spend as much time with patients as they desire,” says Dr. Gladd, citing this as a main advantage of a direct-pay model.
He provides a range of holistic health services, including HeartMath, hormone assessment, and digestive analysis. Clearly, though, nutrition takes center-stage.
All new patients see the dietitian for nutritional guidance, and the clinic offers a comprehensive food-focused program. “It’s Groupon meets local food,” he explained. “We’re trying to create a culture of healthful eating.”
Unlike a conventional insurance-based practice in which physicians are incentivized to move people in and out as quickly as possible, GladdMD’s success depends on keeping people engaged. Dr. Gladd wants patients to get involved in creating a community of health and healing, with the practice at its epicenter. The Hello Health IT platform is a major ally in accomplishing this.
Beyond EMR
The system combines a comprehensive electronic medical record (EMR) with a robust patient engagement portal that offers online appointment scheduling, prescription renewal, access to lab results, and a personal health record (PHR).
Hello Health also provides a platform for secure teleconsults via video, text, and email. These options, says Dr. Gladd, can be developed into cash-pay services.
The system is designed to solve three key challenges facing primary care doctors: to effectively and appropriately engage patients in their own care; to improve care coordination; and to create new revenue potential.
“In integrative medicine, you have to engage and empower the patients. Hello Health really brings that home. The communication tools on the patient side—from the PHR to being able to schedule your own visits whether face to face, via video conferencing or email visit, the health education libraries, the ability to view lab reports and referral notes—these things are huge. They really enable patients to become much more a part of their own health plans,” said Dr. Gladd.
Hello Health also enables physicians to capture revenue for time and service that often goes uncompensated in conventional practice.
The average primary care clinician spend upwards of 675 hours each year on non-reimbursed care-related activities—phone calls and email exchanges with patients, consults with insurers, lawyers or others who seek medical expertise for free. This amounts to as much as $34,000 in lost revenue each year, says Dr. Gladd. It also contributes to exhaustion and burnout.
By facilitating tele-consults and enabling doctors to track and charge for time and energy spent, Hello Health turns uncompensated hours into “Electronic Health Revenue.”
The system was created with integrative physicians in mind, says Stephen Armstrong, Hello Health’s Senior Vice President. “Integrative care is a lot about patients owning their own wellness,” he told Holistic Primary Care. “Active participation is key, and patients attracted to holistic care often bring a wellspring of energy and commitment to their health. We want to facilitate that.”
