The instant gratification economy is alive and well, and now, along with ordering your rides and groceries via apps, D.C. and Northern Virginia residents will be able to use their phones to order instant medical services, too, thanks to on-demand doctor house call app, Heal.
Heal promises quality doctors at your door within two hours of requesting an appointment, seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m, for a $99 flat fee or insurance co-pay.
CEO and co-founder Nick Desai and his wife, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Renee Dua, thought of the idea for Heal after a frustrating emergency room visit in 2014 with their infant son. Their seven-hour wait to see a doctor (for what turned out to be a completely routine issue, said Desai) inspired them to brainstorm ways they could modernize and revamp healthcare.
"Between 70 and 80 percent of ER visits are non-emergencies," Desai said. "If you get sick on the weekend or the evening, there is no doctor's office to go to, and people don't just get sick Monday through Friday, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m."
After receiving an initial $1.5 million from an angel investor, the duo launched Heal in Los Angeles in 2015. Two years later, they've expanded to cities across the state, including in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. The District is their first location outside of California — its somewhat transient population has a strong incentive to use a service like Heal's, said Desai.
"We build our markets around people," he said. "D.C. and Virginia have a lot of short term populations. Every four years there are different people who move in and out of the city who don't have primary care."
Plus, he added, 40 percent of their new customers come from word of mouth, so they're expanding strategically, picking cities that place their product near important influencers. The key, he said, is direct user interaction.
"The healthcare policy makers and law makers and people who work in this town, they get sick. Their kids get sick," he said. "Just like in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where we can have that influence over the tech world, and in LA, over the celebrities and media companies."
For now, Heal patients in D.C. will have to pay the $99 flat fee, but Desai said he expects they'll be on most major area insurance networks within around 90 days.
Dua's expertise in the industry, thanks to her many years as a physician, helped her create the idea behind Heal, which digitizes and automates every aspect of an appointment, except for the doctor-patient communication.
Users input their credit card and insurance information on the app prior to the appointment, allowing them to see what they'll owe upfront. Consent forms, vitals and charting is taken down on a tablet by a medical assistant, letting doctors spend more time with their patients. On average, Heal visits last 25 to 35 minutes, well above the seven minute average in primary care offices, said Desai.
Their biggest challenge so far, he said, is the slow moving nature of evolution in the healthcare industry.
"We spend $3 trillion as a country [on healthcare], everyone complains about it, but despite that, there's somehow this misnomer that this is just the way it has to be," he said. "There's a misnomer that great medical care is tied to a building... it isn't tied to a building, it's tied to the doctor."
Misnomer or not, Desai says they haven't run into much resistance from the doctors, themselves. In fact, Heal's first East Coast Medical Director, Dr. Kari Scantlebury, says most doctors she's spoken to about it think it's almost too good to be true.
"This whole system comes from a practicing physician who knew all too well that healthcare was going in the wrong direction, for both patients and providers," she said. "Once [the doctors] hear about it and experience it, it's like a light bulb goes off."
Heal has grown aggressively, seeing around 2,000 patients in their first year, and 20,000 in their second. The now 120-person company has raised $50 million to date, from investors including Lionel Richie, Jeb Bush and family, and Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs.
"Heal has created a system where you walk into the patient's environment, you have a discussion... the patient can develop trust and understand that that provider is physically there for them. They aren't just part of the herd of cattle being shuttled through their office on any given day," said Scantlebury. "That reestablishment of that connection between the doctor and patient is paramount... Heal really provides the time and environment to allow it to develop naturally."
Image used via CC0 License - Credit Negative Space
