How Self-funded Heimes Corporation Used Direct Primary Care to Save $12,300 on Employee Surgery Procedure

How Heimes saved on an employee surgery.

This case study covers best practices in setting up and executing a self funded health plan with a direct primary care plan integration. Partnering with Strada Healthcare helps Heimes Corporation save money on primary care. In many cases, Strada Healthcare’s negotiating power can save employers money on speciality care and catastrophic events, too. In particular, Heimes was able to save drastically on an employee surgery.

Background

Heimes Corporation employees perform tasks like excavating, recycling, plumbing, boring, wrecking, and more. Without tools for easy access to healthcare prevention and management, compounded with the expensive cost of healthcare, some employees tend to let problems go unresolved. This potentially increases the cost of care for both Heimes and their employees. One “con” of self-funded insurance is that for unpredictable, expensive healthcare costs like surgeries, Heimes pays the full cost.

Heimes Corporation Need: Reduce costs on health claims – especially expensive, unexpected, catastrophic claims – for both Heimes and employees. In particular, reduce the cash-pay cost of an upcoming shoulder surgery for an employee.

Heimes Corporation takes care of their people. As such, they came to Strada Healthcare wanting to add an employee health benefit to give employees tools to help prevent conditions and manage their care while also reducing costs – both in the present and in the future. To accomplish this, Strada Healthcare recommended implementing Direct Primary Care as employee benefit.

Heimes Corporation Solution: Offer an additional employee benefit of Direct Primary Care through Strada Healthcare and integrate it into their self-funded healthcare plan.

A little on Direct Primary Care (DPC)

Strada Healthcare offers direct primary care that integrates into both fully insured and self-funded insured healthcare plans. In direct primary care, patients contract directly with their provider for a low, monthly fee. That fee does not contribute to a deductible. In fact, proponents of direct primary care believe that primary care should be free from insurance entirely. The patient pays no copays. Rather, the contracted fee covers most of their care. Patients also get unlimited access to their provider, both digitally and in-person, and longer visit times, allowing for a more focused direct patient care experience.

It is recommended and encouraged that those who contract through DPC also have insurance – most commonly a high deductible plan that can cover catastrophic events, like surgeries.

Integrating DPC into self-funded insurance plans can even help greatly reduce the cost of specialty care, like imaging and surgery.

Paying cash versus going through insurance for employee surgeries, labs and imaging.

Many people and companies don’t know that they can opt out of insurance for healthcare and pay directly. This is often what Strada Healthcare clients like Heimes choose to do. By paying cash directly, they bypass the politics of expensive insurance rates, and get down to the negotiated, and sometimes at-cost, prices.

“One reason our employees love Strada is the financial savings. There have been several situations where an employee has had an issue, contacted their Strada provider and utilized the cash price to diagnose their issue quicker and at a better price. Getting diagnosed with a quick X-Ray or MRI and not having to go through insurance, and rather paying cash, has saved our employees up to hundreds of dollars.” – Adam Heimes

And because of their partnership with Strada, Heimes gets access to set negotiated cash prices for things like imaging, labs, physical therapy and more – and they get access to a team who has negotiating power for expensive, one-off costs like surgery.

How Strada negotiated on behalf of Heimes for an employee surgery

When an employee recently needed to have shoulder surgery performed, Adam Heimes reached out to Strada’s team. He wanted to know if it made more sense to go through insurance administrators and pay their rates for the surgery, or to pay the hospital and surgeons directly with cash.

The Strada team used their negotiating power to get quotes directly from the orthopedic hospital. A new agreement was drawn, bundling the hospital, physician and anesthesia fees.

Result: Instead of paying insurance’s rate of $26,000 for the procedure, Heimes paid Strada’s negotiated cash price of $13,700 for the same exact procedure.

(Strada gets nothing out of this other than bragging rights!)

As stated above, Heimes takes care of their people. Because their employee was willing to have their procedure bundled and price lowered, Heimes met their deductible for them, paying for the procedure in full.

As a partner of Strada, you can get this preferred treatment, too. Inquire today.

Insurance Brokers Should Be Selling DPC to Self-Funded Groups

Insurance brokers know, and so do their clients: Healthcare costs continue to rise every year.

It would be wrong to say that insurance brokers have it easy trying to sell health insurance in the current market. In 2021, the Insurance Information Institute estimates that healthcare spend in the US is $4.41 trillion. Out of that, it’s estimated by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation that a third of it is wasted on unnecessary healthcare services. And given that our current healthcare system doesn’t encourage prevention and wellness, it’s not surprising that only 6% of healthcare costs go to primary care. A whopping 38% of healthcare costs go to hospital care (according to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative and the Robert Graham Center).

Self-funded companies got fed up with spending too much on premiums. They pulled the plug, and essentially became their own insurance company, only paying for what they need. What if you could come in and make their healthcare spend even less?

Companies with self-funded plans want fewer claims and more employees on high-deductible plans. This is your major opportunity to pitch what most insurance brokers aren’t even aware of – that’s Direct Primary Care (DPC).

Helping Insurance Brokers Understand Direct Primary Care

We’ll start with a tweet.

A tweet from Dutch Rojas: "DPC also known as direct primary care continues to kick butt and take names. I have yet to hear a complaint about DPC. Oh man, my doctor wants to hang out with me for 30 minutes and doesn't have a sign on their door that says, 'Our visit is for 1 medical condition only.' I love it."

Long, focused visits with your provider is one benefit of Direct Primary Care. That, in and of itself, trickles down and creates many more health benefits for patients.

How it works: Direct Primary Care is a primary care membership. The modest monthly membership fee is paid directly to Primary Care Providers (PCP) for unlimited access to them. It’s paying for access versus paying per service. For primary care through DPC, individuals don’t ever pay co-pays and aren’t working to meet a deductible.

In this healthcare model, prevention and wellness take priority. Helping foster the patient-provider relationship achieves this. With more and easier access to their provider, patients develop a long-term relationship that focuses on genetics, medical history, lifestyle, and more. Providers have more time to get to know the patient, working on the source of medical issues versus traditional care, where patients get a ten-minute appointment and prescription write-up for symptoms.

This type of care also maintains health and works toward prevention, making serious, expensive health complications in the future less likely. Round-the-clock access to care also means it’s less likely employees will make trips to urgent care or the ER – the most expensive care available.

Direct Primary Care takes insurance out of primary care, yet it’s not a health insurance replacement. It’s a cost-effective integration, most typically with high-deductible health plans (HDHP).

Because DPC is a direct contract with the provider versus insurance, it eliminates claims on primary care and creates the opportunity for a predictable, transparent, upfront healthcare spend on primary care.

Yes, DPC eliminates claims on primary care and reduces urgent care and ER claims.

View our white paper to see real results!

Second to claims, self-funded companies want their employees to opt-into the HDHP so their employees pay much of their healthcare costs themselves. A HDHP with Direct Primary Care custom integration makes it more likely that their employees will. This is not only a major benefit to your clients, however. Their employees will have 100% of their primary care covered through their Direct Primary Care membership and will pay less money every month for their HDHP premium. Many times, employees get wholesale pricing on labs, negotiated cash pricing on specialists, and their providers help them access the most affordable prescriptions. In-depth relationships and round-the-clock access, as aforementioned, also means more health and less complications in the future.

How Insurance Brokers can Integrate DPC into a Plan Design

Let’s compare costs with a realistic example.

This chart shows how Preferred Provider Organization insurance policies differ from High Deductible Health Plans paired with Direct Primary Care. For the former, deductibles are lower and premiums are higher. Patients must pay a co-pay for visits and don't get unlimited access to their provider.

This chart shows how HDHP + DPC can work together to cut costs versus traditional Preferred Provider Organization health insurance plans (PPO). You’ll see that in this example, the employer saves $176 outright per month. And again, with DPC, they’ll have fewer claims and more employee health, making even more savings down the line.

How can I prove increased health and reduced claims to clients?

When you partner with Strada Healthcare, the premier physician-owned network of Direct Primary Care providers, you are provided sophisticated data reporting and analytics that prove increased health and costs cut in exact numbers.

The core integrations included are electronic medical reports, DPC membership billing platforms, virtual communication tools, and claims data (if made available). We consolidate this data to make it easier for your client to draw applicable conclusions.

Next, Strada Healthcare offers advanced integrations that can accommodate your needs.

These integrations help your client gain a more comprehensive understanding of their employees’ health. This includes health information exchanges, patient satisfaction surveys, biometrics, wearable devices, and patient engagement platforms.

Lastly, Strada Healthcare offers dashboards and reporting. This is done in creative ways to help your client draw conclusions about operational, clinical, and financial performance. Strada Healthcare can help your client make strategic decisions about their primary care strategy. We do this by sharing data-driven reports and seamlessly integrated solutions with you.

For more information, please contact us here.

“My Patient Pledge” from April Thomas MSN, APRN

My Pledge to My Patients

My patient pledge is that I use my vast experiences and knowledge to improve the lives of each patient.

The first years of my career as a Nurse Practitioner were spent in a small community health clinic. My patients and I had very little resources. They had many daily battles to fight – food, housing, and safety. Battles that none of us should have to worry about losing. With these issues came lack of time or energy to care for their health, so chronic diseases like heart disease – and even depression and anxiety – were often the result.

I strove to connect with my patients and did everything I could to learn about their circumstances and barriers to care. This is essential to learning how to care for people – you need to meet them where they are. In my clinic, we did have one very important resource – quite possibly the most important resource: Time. Time was crucial for me. It was going to be the driving force in establishing trust.

I was able to have long visits and get to know my patients, their personal history, family history, lifestyle, and more. As my patients witnessed me learning them, we developed strong bonds. I was able to formulate accurate, responsive and educated care plans that I knew would work with them, their resources and their personality. That’s when I saw follow-through. Most importantly, that’s when I saw improvement. I was using small nutritional changes to reverse chronic conditions and prevent other diseases.

This really got me thinking about where my passion lies. The severe impact of the body on mental health is, in my opinion, not widely known or understood. We’re talking about neurological/chemical imbalances, not only thoughts like “I feel bad because I ate cake.” For example, you might not know that your gastrointestinal tract houses tons of bacteria that are responsible for guiding the production of neurotransmitters. That’s why when you eat healthy, your mood is affected positively – you’re influencing your chemical balances. Consistently doing so will make it less likely to have a chronic mood disorder.

And as you now know, time is so important when you’re auditing someone’s current knowledge, behaviors and history. Healthcare can’t happen in a ten-minute appointment and quick prescription write-up.

While prescriptions can work really well for maintaining mental health, it’s supplemental to discovering and treating the underlying causes of the illness. I work a lot with lab testing and nutrition to find those causes and develop relationships with my patients to keep them accountable for their health plans. With small steps, I’ve found that my patients can slowly improve their lifestyles and improve their health.

I am grateful for my roots in a community health setting, that experience established my point of view on care. I will always seek to understand and empathize with my patients. I will always be on their side and I will always be their advocate. I don’t see any other viable way to practice medicine. This is my patient pledge.

To learn more about Strada affiliate provider April Thomas MSN, APRN, please visit her webpage here.

Employee Wellness Programs Need an Upgrade

Even before the pandemic, employee wellness programs were becoming popular among employers. Now, the popularity and necessity of employee wellness programs has been expedited. And companies know that these programs can benefit their bottom lines. They are not only great recruitment tools, they’re also great retention tools. Healthier, happier employees are more productive and stay longer. Healthier employees also cost less.

But there are several challenging aspects of workplace wellness programs. Just in time for National Employee Health and Fitness Day, let’s go over a few of those challenges and explore some potential solutions.

Assigning Employee Wellness Programs to HR or Management

Many companies, when implementing a workplace wellness program, lean on HR or Management. Your Human Resources department does a lot to support your teams. So does your Management. They recruit, train, resolve, educate, and more. It’s going to be hard to tell them to provide resources and help administer a workplace wellness program.

Another concern is measurement. Especially since they’re not healthcare professionals, how will they develop key metrics and determine ROI? Is this something you’ve considered tracking?

An alternative is to contract with an outside agency to create and execute your plan. That gets costly fast.

Are Employee Wellness Programs Entirely Relevant?

Are you able to make an employee wellness program relevant to the needs of every employee? Definitely not. Hint: That’s only something a provider can do. If your main goal is to reduce healthcare claims, then it’s time to dive into a solution that’s more efficient for everybody.

The root problem is that healthcare is greatly lacking in accessibility, while also being wildly expensive.

Many of these employee wellness programs have popped up because healthcare is getting less accessible and more expensive. For those two reasons (and many more), employees are discouraged from seeing their doctor for preventative, regular healthcare. They only go when they absolutely need to – and sometimes, only to discover more serious health ailments. It’s a tale as old as time.

If your ultimate goal is to save money by reducing health insurance claims, there is a better, more efficient solution than a wellness program.

SOLUTION: Upgrade your Employee Wellness Program to Direct Primary Care

The truth is, we’re all operating in a sick healthcare system. And like we all say to our overworked friends, “You can’t help anyone unless you help yourself first.” That is the job of Direct Primary Care, to cure the healthcare system so we can help patients and their providers become healthy participants within that system.

Our recommendation is to drop the expensive workplace wellness program that maybe works? maybe doesn’t? and upgrade with the PROVEN and AFFORDABLE Direct Primary Care option.

What is Direct Primary Care?

Direct Primary Care is a healthcare membership. In the membership, patients contract directly with their provider for a low, flat, monthly fee for unlimited access. Employers can contribute to that fee, too (with Strada, the fee is $99/month). The membership covers most of the patient’s healthcare needs.

The unlimited access to their provider actually encourages patients to see their provider often. They can text or call or go in for a physical appointment. Patients develop better, more personalized relationships with their providers. Providers gain a deeper understanding of the patient’s history, genetics, lifestyle and more. The main focus becomes prevention and lifestyle change, versus a 10-minute appointment and quick prescription write-up.

This means a significant increase in long-term health, not only managing but reversing chronic conditions, and an overall, long-term decrease in healthcare costs (for you and them).

What’s more, Direct Primary Care eliminates 100% of primary care claims and significantly reduces urgent care claims.

Direct Primary Care Works with Insurance

Direct Primary Care isn’t health insurance. It does, however, work alongside high-deductible insurance plans (HDHP) to elevate the patient healthcare experience. Think of Direct Primary Care as “regular, everyday healthcare coverage,” and HDHP as a catastrophic plan – something you hopefully won’t have to use. With the lower premiums associated with HDHP and the low monthly Direct Primary Care fee, patients often find significant healthcare savings or that “My Direct Primary Care membership pays for itself.” In addition, patients pay no copays and don’t work to meet a deductible for primary care with Direct Primary Care.

Partner with an Expert to Administer and Measure Your Direct Primary Care Offering

An expert partner should be able to handle employee education and enrollment, payment processing, employee hotlines, key performance indicator (also written as KPI, measures success in particular activities) reporting and analytics, and more. You also need to choose a Direct Primary Care organization with experience, a wide network of providers, and relationships with specialists and imaging services to get the best cash prices.

You might consider partnering with Strada Healthcare, the Nebraska-based national leader in Direct Primary Care, with affiliated clinics across the country. Learn more about how we help businesses succeed in their health offerings here.

NE State Employees Now Have More Primary Care Options

Primary Care Options Expand for NE State Employees

Via Lincoln Journal Star

Lincoln, NE – Nebraska State employees are now eligible to enroll in Direct Primary Care, offered to them as part of their employee health benefits package.

This offering follows the passing of the State of Nebraska Direct Primary Care Pilot Program Act, signed by Governor Pete Ricketts. Implementation of the Program was led by Strada Healthcare – the Direct Primary Care leader of Nebraska – in conjunction with UnitedHealthcare and the Department of Administrative Services.

With locations across Nebraska, Strada Healthcare is the largest Direct Primary Care network in the State and is a national leader in Direct Primary Care.

This Act benefits local State employees by providing them another, more affordable and convenient way to access their primary care.

The main function of Direct Primary Care is to remove insurance from primary care transactions. As such, the model works to significantly reduce health insurance claims and increase prevention and wellness.

And according to Joel Bessmer MD, Chief Medical Officer of Strada Healthcare, primary care providers can treat up to 90-95% of care for a patient, something many don’t realize.

Chief Medical Officer Joel Bessmer, MD with a patient

Joel Bessmer, MD, Chief Medical Officer, founded Strada Healthcare as part of his mission to make primary care more affordable. He believes – and has proven – that Direct Primary Care can do just that.

Dr. Bessmer states, “As healthcare has gotten more expensive – as health insurance has gotten more expensive – so much of our middle class has been priced out of healthcare because they know it’s their dollars they’re going to spend to go see the doctor. And that’s what we love about Direct Primary Care – it allows for low monthly payments upfront so that we can help protect those patients from ever having to meet their deductible.”

In the Direct Primary Care model, the patient contracts with a primary care provider directly. For an affordable flat monthly fee, the patient has unlimited access to that provider, 24/7. This allows cost transparency, and the patient absolves themselves of out-of-pocket costs for primary care, like copays or meeting deductibles.

“One of the ways to reduce healthcare costs is to facilitate the relationship between the patient and their provider,” said Nebraska State Governor Pete Ricketts in the Act’s 2018 signing ceremony. “The patient can have better communication and more proactive healthcare, and that’s how you lower costs overall in the Direct Primary Care program.”

State Senator Merv Riepe, Governor Pete Ricketts, Dr. Todd Johnson, Dr. Joel Bessmer, and Dr. Steve Lazoritz at the 2018 Direct Primary Care Pilot Program Act signing ceremony.

(Left to Right) State Senator Merv Riepe, Governor Pete Ricketts, Dr. Todd Johnson, Dr. Joel Bessmer, and Dr. Steve Lazoritz at the 2018 Direct Primary Care Pilot Program Act signing ceremony.

Even more, Governor Ricketts confirmed that the State of Nebraska will cover 79% of the Direct Primary Care cost for State employees.

According to Todd Johnson, DO, the first-ever Direct Primary Care provider in the State of Nebraska, patients can often get wholesale pricing on medications, imaging, bloodwork – 50-90% off the retail price.

“The most common comment I have from my patients is ‘Wow this is amazing, why isn’t everybody doing this? Why haven’t we done it before?’” says Dr. Johnson. “And it’s not complicated, it’s simple. It’s membership-based healthcare. Pay your membership, just like Netflix – you get a movie – or you get to see your doctor, or call your doctor, or FaceTime them or text them.”

State Senator Merv Riepe, who was instrumental in the introduction and passing of the Act, encourages State employees to opt-into Direct Primary Care and pair it with a catastrophic plan, also offered through the State’s benefit package. In other words, enroll in a high-deductible health plan to wrap-around Direct Primary Care. This is a protection in the case of a catastrophic medical emergency.

The high-deductible health plan allows for lower premiums, paired with the low fee for Direct Primary Care.

“Direct Primary Care is absolutely a solution for many of our healthcare problems,” says Dr. Bessmer. “We encourage the provider to spend more time with their patients. Because instead of today where we have a sick healthcare system – and quite honestly doctors are rewarded when the patient is sick – this flips that continuum upside down and says ‘The more you can do to get your patients healthy the less they’re in your office. The more you interact with them and help them get healthy, the better off everybody is in this system.’”

NE State employees can get more information about Direct Primary Care by visiting https://www.stradahealthcare.com/nebraska/.

Strada Healthcare's brand logo

Why All Self-Funded Employers Should Integrate Direct Primary Care in their Benefits

*** View our infographic on the bottom of this page to learn more!

Why All Self-Funded Employers Should Integrate Direct Primary Care in their Benefits

The sometimes-unpredictable cost of claims accrued over the business year is a huge consideration for self-funded employers. To account for this unpredictability, many self-funded employers have stop-loss coverage. You can make healthcare spend more predictable when you eliminate an entire category of claims.

Self-funding is the option for many employers because it benefits their bottom line. Instead of a guaranteed expensive insurance pay, you bet on saving money when you pay for the claims directly. It’s an even better wager if you integrate Direct Primary Care (DPC) in your offerings.

Self-funded employers become more competitive in the labor market with Direct Primary Care.

DPC offers more affordable healthcare and also guarantees employees better healthcare access. And the real kicker is that it’s unlimited, too. There’s typically an increase employee satisfaction with their health benefits when DPC is integrated.

They’re also more productive – they can text, call or video chat with their provider anytime from anywhere. That means instead of taking PTO when they have a concern, they can first text their provider to see if they can get their question answered or get the proper prescription that way. They’ll decide with their provider – with a same or next-day appointment – if it’s more serious and they need to come in.

Yes, employees more productive and happier when they have an option for Direct Primary Care. Let’s get back to cost savings and predictability for employers.

Self-funded employers can eliminate an entire category of claims with Direct Primary Care.

Direct Primary Care is a healthcare membership. In the membership, patients contract directly with their provider for a low, flat, monthly fee for access. In the traditional insurance fee-for-service world, resources may be wasted, and patients can be nickeled-and-dimed. In DPC, patients have unlimited access to their provider. The membership covers most of their healthcare needs.

For an employer, this eliminates 100% of primary care claims for exchange of the predictable monthly fee. Urgent care claims can significantly decrease, too.

When we actually encourage patients to see their provider often, they develop better relationships with them. All because their access is unlimited. This access allows the provider a deeper understanding of the patient’s history, genetics, lifestyle and more. The main focus becomes prevention and lifestyle change, versus a 10-minute appointment and quick prescription write-up.

This means a significant increase in long-term health, not only managing but reversing chronic conditions, and an overall, long-term decrease in healthcare costs (for you and them).

And, through Direct Primary Care, patients often get access to negotiated cash prices for services like imaging, labs, tests and even specialists. The prices are usually a fraction of what they could get it for with insurance.

DPC requires no copays and patients don’t work to meet a deductible for primary care.

How to encourage employees to opt-into your high deductible health plan.

Those who are proponents of Direct Primary Care believe that insurance shouldn’t be involved in every healthcare transaction. Taking insurance out of primary care saves money, decreases paperwork, and fosters patient-provider relationships. That applies to the self-funded high-deductible option you provide, too.

Direct Primary Care works best with a wrap-around high deductible health plan (HDHP). Consider the Direct Primary Care as the everyday health “coverage.” Paired with DPC, the high deductible health plan acts as catastrophic coverage – something you hope they won’t ever have to use. When employees understand that Direct Primary Care saves them money and gives them more convenience, they’re going to choose it. And since you’ve paired DPC with a HDHP, that means they’re opting into the HDHP, which saves you money, too.

Start with an employee education program.

As aforementioned, employee education is extremely important for uptake and success in a DPC program. It’s hard to dump that on HR, so it’s a great idea to partner with a DPC organization that can handle the administration services, too.

That should include employee education and enrollment, payment processing, hotlines to answer questions, key performance indicator (also written as KPI, measures success in particular activities) reporting and analytics, and more. You also need to choose a DPC organization with experience, a wide network of providers, and relationships with specialists and imaging services to get the best cash prices.

Patient Relationships with Cassie Krause MSN, APRN

The Strada team was fortunate enough to sit down with our amazing provider Cassie Krause, MSN, APRN to talk about ways Strada’s unique primary care model allows her to build deeper, more meaningful patient relationships than conventional primary care.

If after reading this interview, you’d like to learn more about Strada Healthcare and becoming a patient of Cassie, click here.

Hi Cassie! Excited to talk with you today. What attracted you to healthcare?

Hi there! I went into healthcare because I had an interest in medicine but really, a love for people. It’s so fun to build patient relationships. And if you have a tangible way to help them by helping them with their health, I just love that. I love what I do.

You previously worked as a nurse in the Nebraska Medicine Cardiac Progressive Care Unit and Post Anesthesia Care Unit. What inspired you to leave that and start your own primary care practice?

What I loved about working in the hospital was that you really got to know your patients. You were able to help them in a tangible way when they needed it, when they were really sick. The problem with that is that patient relationships don’t continue when they leave the hospital, you don’t follow them home. So really, I always wanted to go back to school, I always wanted to be a nurse practitioner so that I could build those patient relationships over time and really get to know them.

You received extra training from the Institute of Functional Medicine. How did that go?

I absolutely fell in love with functional medicine about five years ago. It’s a more natural, more holistic way of treating people and I find that it weaves in so well to primary care. The foundation is to live a healthy lifestyle and how important that is for our health over a long period of time. I’ve just fallen in love with it and really, we all usually go into healthcare because we all just want to help people. By using my functional medicine training, I feel like I’m better at helping people.

What is your care philosophy?

My care philosophy is really that I believe my patients deserve to know all of the options. They deserve to know all the things we can do to try to improve their health, whatever their health goal may be. Whether it’s losing weight, having more energy, sleeping better at night, or managing a really serious medical condition. I think there are a lot of things we can offer in terms of health coaching on diet, nutrition, sleep, stress management. All of those things play such an important role in our health. If we can use all those tools and help them through a lot of different resources, a lot of the time they’re able to achieve their health goals. And we can help them in ways that I couldn’t do with conventional medicine alone.

Exactly – and in order to help people buy into their health, the provider needs to have strong patient relationships. That’s a big part of what you love about medicine.

Absolutely. And really, what I love about Strada is that, again, it is those patient relationships. It’s a relationship that takes away the middle person. My patients can text me, can send me messages directly. Their messages come directly to me, and I can send them a message back really quickly and handle it. Again, you just get to know your patients well enough that you know when they need something. I can reference their history and things that have worked well in the past and what didn’t. Strada’s platform provides that in a really easy way.

Does Strada’s model make it more possible to align your practice with your care philosophy?

My practice as a whole does have a smaller patient panel. Initial patient appointments are an hour long. I don’t think you can fix anybody or fix any problem in ten minutes, unless it’s something as simple as an ear infection or strep throat. Otherwise, it just takes time to figure out what my patients are doing lifestyle-wise, what they’re willing to change, lifestyle-wise. So I do have that smaller patient panel and longer appointments so I can really get to know them. I can understand what their goals are, and brainstorm ways I can help them. And also, assess their readiness to change or to implement some of the things I’m recommending.

Strada really allows deeper patient relationships to happen. Again, what Strada allows is increased access to me. It allows my patients to get ahold of me very easily. There are a lot of things that I handle over the phone or via text message. I can answer questions and reassure people or give direction on what they can do to help. And knowing that my door’s always open. I’m always here to help. If they do want to come in for an appointment and really have me take a look at something – I’m happy to. But it’s the convenience aspect of Strada. It’s convenient for me, it’s convenient for the patient to be able to send me messages.

Going more in-depth on that – how does Strada work for the patient in terms of finances? In terms of insurance, copays, deductibles, etc.

I have a hybrid practice, which means I do accept some commercial insurance plans. And, I do have some people who don’t have insurance so I have cash rates for things that I do.

What Strada does is take all the thinking out of copays, deductibles and the pressure of “I need to go to the doctor but I’m not sure I can afford it.” It’s a monthly membership plan of an affordable rate. Then my patients can send me a message any time they need. They don’t have to worry about being able to afford if they can come in. With Strada, you can come in any time you want to. If we need to meet weekly or monthly for a while – all of those things are okay to do. There’s no increase in fees with that. And even the wholesale pricing for labs – it really lowers the cost of any lab work that we need done. These things can be very financially beneficial for the patient, especially in the day and age where most of us have really high deductible plans where we’re paying for a lot out-of-pocket anyway. Strada really makes it affordable for people to have good healthcare, increased access to me, and again, the convenience.

Health insurance is not healthcare. Do you agree?

No it’s not. I try to train my patients that in the functional medicine world, there are a lot of things I ask my patients to agree to. That includes lab work that may not be covered by insurance. We all want our insurance to cover everything, but it doesn’t. But we have to stop letting insurance tell us how to practice medicine, tell us what’s the best care needed for a patient in that situation for that day. When we are able to remove the insurance barrier with Strada, it’s me making that decision along with my patient. We determine the best care for them at that time. Now, I don’t have to wait for a third party, for an insurance company to agree with me or not or to decide later if they’re going to cover it or not. It takes so much of the headache out. So I would agree – health insurance is not healthcare.

Tell me about a time a Strada patient had a great experience with you!

I actually had an experience last night! I had been in contact with a patient for a couple days whose son had a sore on his toe. They had tried lots of things at home, and she said that maybe they’ll need an appointment to come in. And I said, “Why don’t you send me a picture of the toe first and let me just see it.” They actually live out of town and it would’ve been quite a trek for them to come in here. After she sent me a picture, I realized that it didn’t look good. At that point, it required antibiotics. I was able to review his medical history and some of the medicines he was on. I realized that one of the medicines he’s on could’ve contributed to his toe infection. Again, it was just an easy conversation over text message. I recommended that they talk to his dermatologist to rethink his other medication and then prescribe him the right antibiotic to take care of his problem. I was able to do that all in that night, right when they needed it. Mom didn’t have to wait for the office to open in the morning, and most of the time you can’t text pictures to the doctor’s office. With Strada, they were able to talk to me directly. It all comes down to increased access. Mom was really grateful that we were able to do all of that, that night and get treatment going as soon as possible.

What’s something you hear from Strada patients often?

I often hear comments about our low cost for labs. I have a Strada patient who is on hormone replacement therapy. I manage her hormones and check those twice a year. She said her lab savings just in getting her hormones done through Strada pays for her membership, she’s so happy with it. Many of my patients really enjoy being able to text me and let me know if something comes up and to ask for recommendations – she’s one of them! It’s something so easy that I can help her with via text message. There’s no calling an office, waiting for a nurse to call her back, waiting for an office appointment, and no increase in expenses. Those are all benefits she has under her Strada membership. That’s consistently what I hear from patients. It’s so convenient, it’s so helpful, they love the direct access, that they don’t have to talk to ten different people to reach their doctor. And most of the time they don’t even get to the doctor, they talk to support staff. But with Strada, we’re just able to remove all those barriers.

Fantastic, Cassie! We are so glad that Strada gives you the opportunity for you to develop closer patient relationships and be there when they need you. Thank you so much for all you do.

Of course, I’m happy to be a Strada provider.

If you’d like to learn more about Strada Healthcare and becoming a patient of Cassie, click here.

Cassie is also the founder of Transformative Health. View their website here.

Strada Healthcare Expands into Texas with Newest Affiliate Clinic

Strada Healthcare, Omaha-based Direct Primary Care Network, Expands to Texas

Omaha, NE – Strada Healthcare has announced today that Dr. Thomas Kay, MD, ABFM of New Braunfels, TX, is joining their Network of Direct Primary Care providers across the Midwest, East Coast and Southwest. Dr. Thomas Kay is a board-certified family medicine physician who completed medical school at the University of Texas Medical School and family medicine residency at McLennan County Medical Education and Research Foundation. He also practices emergency medicine.

Dr. Thomas Kay joins Strada Healthcare as the founder of Direct Primary Care New Braunfels. As an affiliate provider of Strada Healthcare, Dr. Thomas Kay will have more opportunities to grow his Direct Primary Care practice.

“I’m thrilled that Dr. Thomas Kay will be joining our Network,” says Joel Bessmer, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Strada Healthcare. “Thomas brings over 20 years of knowledge and experience of creating health for his patients.For the last five years, Thomas has made a huge commitment to deepen his patient-provider relationship with the opening of his Direct Primary Care clinic and we look forward to his growth with Strada Healthcare.”

Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a healthcare model that is catching on among U.S. business owners, families, individuals, and primary care providers as they endure the effect of rising healthcare costs. DPC cuts costs by taking health insurance out of primary healthcare transactions. Instead, patients pay their DPC provider directly with a modest monthly membership fee for unlimited access to primary care. This means patients can visit their provider an unlimited number of times without co-pays or working toward deductibles. It’s modeled so that high-deductible plans with low monthly premiums wrap-around DPC memberships and act as a safety net for unlikely catastrophic events. DPC encourages health, wellness, and preventative care.

“When I began to consider what an ideal medical practice would look like, I landed on Direct Primary Care,” says Dr. Thomas Kay. “In a world where so many have health care insurance, and so few have anyone caring for their health, my patients enjoy having direct access to their provider, being heard and working toward optimal health.”

As a provider through Strada Healthcare, Dr. Thomas Kay’s Texas clinic will have more opportunities to create business partnerships with companies looking for ways to cut health insurance claims and give their employees a better health insurance plan at a more affordable cost.

Strada Healthcare patients are offered resources like 24/7 text and call options through Spruce App, a free, secure, HIPAA-compliant digital care platform. Patients can also schedule appointments – including virtual ones – with their dedicated provider through the App. Because of this, Strada Healthcare’s providers can handle many healthcare needs whether they are urgent or simple. The App is one of the multiple ways Strada Healthcare offers greater access to care.

For more information on the pricing and benefits of Strada Healthcare, visit stradahealthcare.com.

Strada Healthcare was established in Nebraska by Dr. Joel Bessmer. Strada Healthcare has grown to be the premier physician-owned network of Direct Primary Care providers across the Midwest, East Coast and Southwest. Through Strada Healthcare, its members pay a low monthly fee of $99 directly to their Strada Healthcare primary care provider for unlimited access to them versus co-pays for individual service. This model encourages wellness and prevention, and allows for a closer patient-provider relationship, cost savings, and better health outcomes. Strada Healthcare has business partnerships across the nation and is growing because they can prove cost savings and increased health with exact numbers. To learn about our solutions, services, membership pricing and more, visit our website at www.stradahealthcare.com.

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If you would like more information on this topic or to see our data on lowering costs and increasing health, please call Ryne Bessmer at (402) 305-5152, or email ryne@stradahealthcare.com.

NCIG and Strada Healthcare Partnership

Direct Primary Care with Strada Healthcare gives you affordable care options and can actually increase your productivity.

In this article, you’ll learn why keeping yourself healthy, or managing your current care needs, is the best investment you can make in your business – and you might not have thought about it like that before! Really – what if you and your team could get the best benefits of healthcare without the financial burden?

The Strada + NCIG Partnership

NCIG understands your life, the pressures you face, the toll it takes on your body and health. Because of this, as their member, they know it’s their job to help you and your employees by offering you discounted benefits. And so our partnership was born – because what we offer with Direct Primary Care fits the life demands and budget of Nebraska beef producers, not the other way around.

Direct Primary Care: “What’s in It for Me?”

When you’re feeling your best, that’s when your business runs best. But keeping yourself at your best can be time and money-consuming and that’s a huge undertaking, so much so that you wonder if it’s worth it. With traditional healthcare, you have to schedule an appointment for weeks or even months out. Then you wait for an hour once you get there. And when you get there, you’re met with a copay.

Here’s an idea: What if there was a way to make healthcare WORK for YOU?

You Save with Strada Healthcare.

Strada Healthcare isn’t insurance or an insurance replacement. It’s a healthcare membership that gives you unlimited access and huge savings – and with one low monthly price that you pay DIRECTLY to Strada Healthcare (NO insurance, NO copays). Strada Healthcare memberships are best paired with high-deductible insurance plans with a lower premium. As a result, it’s a fantastic business solution.

Adults 19+ are $99/month, and you can visit our site to learn more about our pricing structure for children, spouses and families. And the list below shows what’s covered for that low membership price.

Annual Physical
All Preventative and Follow Up Appointments
Annual Lab Work
Women’s Health
Acute Visits
Chronic Disease Management
Weight Management
Treatment of Sprains and Lacerations
Infant and Child Well Checks
Mental Health
For additional labs and imagining, we have partnerships with providers across the state to offer you negotiated discount pricing.

You Get Unlimited Access with Strada Healthcare.

If you’re already healthy, it’s really important to keep it that way. Or if you have a chronic condition and need help managing it, it all comes easier with access to care. In the list below, you’ll see how Strada Healthcare gives you access.

Strada Healthcare’s affiliate clinics and providers in your local area.
Strada Healthcare’s same-day or next-day appointments.
With your Strada Healthcare membership, you have unlimited visits with your primary care provider – no extra cost.
For minor acute conditions, use 100% free and secure Spruce App to text, call, or have a virtual visit with your Strada Healthcare provider (no extra cost) and get medications if needed.
Little to no wait time for appointments, and longer, more focused visits with your doctor.

Seriously, think about what all of this means for your business! If you and your employees have greater access to care – and you can do it more affordably – everyone will spend less time in a doctor’s office and stay healthy, happy and productive.

Strada Healthcare Launches COVID-19 Antibody Test to Measure Vaccine Effectiveness

Antibody Test COVID19 Strada Healthcare

As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available to the public, immunity monitoring is playing an important role in determining vaccine effectiveness. Strada Healthcare is pleased to offer Roche’s Elecsys^® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S test to help Omaha and Lincoln area residents detect antibody production after infection and vaccination.

The test is available at Strada’s Omaha (11810 Nicholas St.) and Lincoln (4545 S. 86^th St.) facilities. The cost is $125, and results are available within 72 hours.

“Most antibody tests on the market today only detect antibody production after someone has been infected with the virus, but many people want to know if they have developed antibodies after receiving the vaccine as well,” said Lisa Fisher, Director of Operations at Strada Healthcare. “We’re pleased to offer a test that recognizes both.”

Strada partnered with Boston Heart Diagnostics to provide the new antibody test, which received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The serology (blood) test can be used to measure the level of antibodies in people who have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including those who have received Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

For optimal results, individuals are encouraged to wait at least three weeks following an infection or a vaccination before taking the antibody test in order to identify potential exposure and immunity. These antibodies increase significantly within three weeks after the first injection of either the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines, and the values are especially high after the second dose, according to Boston Heart Diagnostics.

For more information or to schedule an antibody test, visit stradahealthcare.com/testing.