ChristianaCare’s virtual primary care program is launching in Pa., N.J., and Del.
ChristinaCare is launching a new primary care practice that will be entirely virtual for patients in Pa., NJ and Del.
ChristianaCare is making a bet that patients will pay a premium for faster, more personalized care delivered virtually to their Philadelphia-area homes.
The Delaware-based health system, which operates about a dozen health-care facilities, including three hospitals, will offer virtual primary care to patients 5 years and older in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Florida. The program was previously available to health system employees.
The approach, called direct primary care, has grown in recent years as high out-of-pocket costs and co-pays are making health care increasingly unaffordable, even to those with comprehensive health insurance.
Rather than billing insurance, these programs charge patients a flat monthly rate. For the price, members can text, call, or video chat with their primary care provider, access same-day appointments, and quickly reach a nurse for urgent care questions on nights and weekends.
The monthly rate for ChristianaCare’s virtual primary care practice starts at $35 a month for children and young adults, and increases to $65 a month for adults over age 65, who typically need more medical care.
“We want to be the Amazon of health care,” said Sharon Anderson, a registered nurse and president of ChristianaCare’s Center for Virtual Health. “We want to deliver health care in your home.”
Expanding virtual health care during the pandemic
Use of telehealth expanded widely during the start of the pandemic, when health systems were ordered to suspend all but their most critical in-person services. And although virtual visits have declined since the peak of the pandemic, they remain well above pre-pandemic levels.
In the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, about 37% of respondents 18 and older said they had used telehealth in the last year, according to an analysis of findings published in October by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the pandemic, ChristianaCare learned that most primary care services can be done virtually — and many patients prefer it, Anderson said.
“I’m not sure the younger generation is going to do the whole ‘patient pilgrimage’ to the doctor’s office,” she said. “It’s inconvenient and time consuming.”
The care model
With its new virtual physician practice, ChristianaCare anticipates that patients are not only willing to pay an up-front price for care, but also will increasingly favor on-demand, at-home health care over in-person interactions with a doctor.
The medical group’s nine doctors practice exclusively through virtual visits, Anderson said. They expect to add more providers and support staff as needed to meet patient demand.
Most health insurance plans are required to cover at no additional cost a range of primary care services, including an annual physical, certain vaccines, and routine preventive screenings. But co-pays and cost sharing for follow-up care, sick visits, and lab work can quickly add up, especially for people with high-deductible health plans.
Some direct primary care groups, including ChristianaCare’s, have contracts with employers or insurance plans, meaning that some people may have access to the virtual practice through their insurance plan or employer. But the majority of patients are expected to join directly, through a monthly subscription.