Maxine Frazier loves her new doctor. The Central District resident started going to Iora Primary Care a few months ago, and it’s safe to say she wouldn’t go back to a traditional doctor’s office.
“This is the best thing I ever heard of,” she said.
Iora is a local branch of a growing national health provider. The fast-growing company has 12 offices across the country, with plans to open another 10 or 11 within a year, according to Kathleen Haley, senior director of marketing and communications for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company.
Locally, there’s an office in Shoreline, and another at 23rd and Jackson in the Central District.
Iora is looking to upend the typical fee-for-service health care model, and instead partners with companies or health insurers to offer services based on a more regular schedule. In general, the insurer pays Iora a monthly fee for each member, which allows the patient to visit the office as much, or as little as they need. Visits end up lasting longer than a usual doctor’s visit, with one-hour blocks of time set aside for each patient. The New York Times just called it “a kind of Starbucks for health care.”
“We’re just restoring humanity to health care. That’s it,” quipped Dr. Jay Mathur, a Central District Iora physician CHS spoke with.
The idea is that by spending more time with a patient, health care providers can tease out information about potential problems before they happen. This in turn, is hoped to reduce hospitalizations and emergency care visits, reducing costs for the insurer in the long run.
The medical teams at Iora say they enjoy the new model as much as their patients do. Mathur said he’s worked in other practices in the country where he once saw upwards of 50 patients a day.
“Now, I’m seeing, at most, two an hour,” he said.
And it’s not just the doctor in the office during a visit, Iora also partners each patient with a health coach. The coach will sit in with the doctor, patient and any family members who attend the appointment. As everyone talks, the coach can pull in resources and make notes about follow-up actions, explained Annalise Cook, a health coach who is also a registered nurse.
Exam rooms are equipped with large monitors, and doctors plug their laptops into the screens so everyone can see the notes (and offer corrections and clarifications) as the doctor takes them.
After the visit, it’s the coach who also makes sure that follow-ups happen. The coach will call in prescriptions and ensure any referrals to specialists are made. By keeping one person in charge of these after-visit actions, it’s easier for to make sure everything is happening correctly, and to spot potential conflicts in care.
“The coach helps make the plan reality,” Mathur said.
Frazier said they did more for her than that. The health coach was able to help switch Frazier to generic medications, saving her a bundle. Her coach also helps her navigate the health care landscape, explaining benefits to her that she didn’t know she was qualified to receive.
‘I call it, ‘like a country doctor,’” Frazier said. “Everybody is so caring.”
The longer blocks of time also allow for more follow-up. Cook and Mathur both seemed excited about the chance to contact patients more regularly. They shared an anecdote about a patient who was unable to make it to the office. Since they already had an hour blocked out, there was plenty of time for them to get in the car and drive to her, an honest-to-goodness house call. They arrived, found about changes in her life that made it harder for her to come in, and were able to coordinate with other health care workers who, by chance happened to be there at the same time.
“We’re really in a good place to set her up for the future,” Mathur said.
The 23rd and Jackson Iora branch partners with Humana Medicare, so only people who have that plan currently qualify to come in for a visit. This ends up skewing the Central District patient base toward senior citizens.
Cook said Iora facilities also feature an in-house social worker who can help connect patients with additional resources.
“We really advocate for this geriatric population,” she said.
Iora has plans to expand their presence in the Seattle market, Haley said, though they’re not yet ready to announce details.
Iora Primary Care is located at 306 23rd Ave. S. You can learn more at iorahealth.com.
Sounds like a great concept. Iora’s site states this clinic is ONLY for seniors 65+ who are enrolled in a the Humana plan, not that it skews older.