apree health is a company formed by digital innovator Castlight Health and leading advanced primary care provider Vera Whole Health – which has a goal of building an end-to-end healthcare solution that redefines the care experience and transforms the way patients access and engage with care, the way providers deliver care, and the way employers and other purchasers pay for care. Pulse 2.0 interviewed apree health’s Associate Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marla McLaughlin, to learn more about the company.
Dr. Marla McLaughlin’s Background
Dr. McLaughlin’s background is in clinical medicine, where she works as a Family Medicine physician. She said: “I practiced in a very traditional, fee-for-service model for the first three years of my career. These fee-for-service models of healthcare in the U.S. are driven by the volume of care given rather than the quality of care given. In this type of setting, financial incentives are not aligned for the best patient outcomes. Physicians have limited time to meet and engage with patients, which can lead to a fragmented experience that sometimes involves more specialists than necessary. As a result, patients often get lost in the system and providers burn out.
I absolutely loved patient care, but within the fee-for-service model, I did not feel I was given the time to practice medicine the way I was trained. I then spent the next 11 years in full-time patient care in an advanced primary care model. It breathed life back into my career to be able to take care of my patients in a way that could truly change their health trajectory.
Advanced primary care models promise to deliver care in a way that is data-driven, highly coordinated, led by a multidisciplinary care team (provider, behavioral health, health coach, RN), and focused on population health. While population health can sound impersonal, it is actually the process of figuring out what services will be most meaningful based on the needs of an entire population and then focusing on each individual with those services to change the health trajectory of the population as a whole.
My background as a Family Medicine physician working in a variety of healthcare settings has lended itself well to my role today as Associate Chief Medical Officer at apree health. apree’s mission is to provide members with true advanced primary care as the central core to an integrated health network that is person-centric, improves patient health outcomes, and lowers the total cost of care.”
Primary Responsibilities
After asking Dr. McLaughlin about her primary responsibilities, she shared:
“In my role as Associate Chief Medical Officer at apree health, I lead our provider organization that consists of 85 physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. My organization oversees the quality of care being provided to our members and works to ensure full care team integration. I am also the executive sponsor for our Columbus, Ohio market and our anchor client there, JPMorgan Chase.”
Core Products
What are apree health’s core products and features? Dr. McLaughlin explained: “At apree health, we provide an end-to-end clinical product that includes three main components that all work together. First, we have a clinically-driven digital navigation application that guides patients to the most appropriate level and venue of health care. For example, if a patient needs to undergo a medical procedure like an MRI, they can use our navigation platform to find facilities near them that offer the best quality care that falls within their benefits plan.
Second, we have centralized clinical services that include RN triage, condition management, whole health coaching, and behavioral health. These services are additive to our digital solution and we are able to wrap these services around provider partners in different markets, providing an elevated, advanced primary care offering for patients beyond the traditional primary care.
Finally, we operate advanced primary care clinics that are brick and mortar clinics that house multidisciplinary care teams and provide high quality clinical care that is cost effective for employers and payers. We are willing to take financial risk to ensure cost savings along the continuum of how many of these three solutions our clients have deployed.”
Partnership With JPMorgan Chase
After asking Dr. McLaughlin about apree health’s partnership with JPMorgan Chase, she revealed: “Just over a year ago, we partnered with COPC (Central Ohio Primary Care) in Columbus, Ohio. Our anchor client in that market is JPMorgan Chase. We have three clinics in JPMorgan Chase offices to provide advanced primary care to their employees and two near-site clinics for the employees, their spouses, and children.
Through our partnership, we are able to provide near-instant access to providers, specialist referrals, and a uniquely personalized care experience, resulting in improved patient outcomes and satisfaction (NPS score of 86, return rate of over 76%). For reference, the average healthcare NPS is in the 30s. We have engaged approximately 10,000 of their 32,000 covered members in our system. We contract on quality and cost and will be awaiting full results shortly into 2024 as this was our first full year of operations.”
Patient Success Stories
After asking Dr. McLaughlin about patient success stories, she reflected:
“There are so many, and I love to share. We had a member who came to one of our clinics for a same-day visit due to some back pain he was experiencing. The provider addressed those needs and set him up with physical therapy. They also did a complete history on him, and while he did not feel well enough to do a full wellness exam that day, he was scheduled to return in two weeks.
At that next visit, the physical therapy was starting to help his back pain. A full wellness check was done and labs were drawn. He was a newly diagnosed diabetic, had elevated cholesterol, and his BMI was in an obesity category. The provider started with lifestyle management. He referred him to health coaching and behavioral health in our clinics. He saw both several times, sometimes in-person and sometimes virtual – based on the member’s preference. When the member followed up with the provider in 3 months, he had lost 17 lbs and was in a normal BMI range, his diabetic testing was back in a normal range and well-controlled, and his cholesterol had decreased significantly.
This patient story is a great example of a few things, including the power of our integrated care team wrapping multi-disciplinary services around the member. When the member just wanted something quick and convenient for his back pain, we provided that same-day service, but we also used that engagement touch point to start to create a relationship that led into a true primary care relationship and therefore his health trajectory has changed significantly. This patient story also shows that accessibility to care is important, because if he could not see us quickly for the back pain, he likely would have ended up in urgent care or the ER. Both would have been much more costly and would not have started a primary care relationship long-term. Finally, this story is a good example of how we used the clinically integrated network we have built with COPC to get him into their high quality physical therapy quickly when it was needed for his back pain.”
Favorite Memory
What was Dr. McLaughlin’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Dr. McLaughlin pointed out: “Undoubtedly, patient success stories like the previous question are always my favorite memories of working for apree health. It is so gratifying when the day-to-day work of care integration and provider management come to fruition with a success story that highlights the impact we can have by changing an individual’s health trajectory and an entire population’s health trajectory. Making a difference in the health of full populations starts with each individual and the stories are so meaningful and motivating.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Dr. McLaughlin faced in building the company? Dr. McLaughlin acknowledged: “Most of the bottlenecks we experience occur at the market level. Meaning, if we are going into a market that we consider a “primary care desert,” sometimes we run into longer than average recruiting cycles. We have made plans to overcome that, but it can be a challenge. Also, depending on the client situation, another bottleneck can be accessing and receiving data on their members so we can risk stratify them and make sure we are matching our resources we provide with the level of medical risk in the population we are serving.”
Evolution Of apree health’s Technology
How has apree health’s technology evolved since launching? Dr. McLaughlin noted: “The initial launch of our technology was under the name Castlight Health. Initially, Castlight offered a digital navigation application that provided any information the patient requested regarding their health benefits or where to find quality healthcare. This application has now evolved to become a clinically-led application that guides patients to where they need to be. It is focused on making sure members have access to high-quality primary care and helping them find it if not.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition, or other companies who are looking to reimagine healthcare? Dr. McLaughlin affirmed: “There are several differentiators. We are an end-to-end healthcare company. Many companies who have similar missions to ours only focus on one element of what we offer – ie. they have just the APC solution, or just an app, or just centralized/virtual services. We have all of these in a longitudinal record which makes the care much more highly coordinated. We have an appetite for financial risk and will put fees at risk based on our performance and ability to lower the total cost of care. We also take pride in the level of quality we achieve. We track seven quality metrics, and now, even prior to the end of 2023, we have better results than 90% of healthcare practices in the country in 5 metrics, and 75% of the country in the other 2 metrics. These metrics span hypertension, diabetes care, and cancer screenings.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Dr. McLaughlin concluded: “At apree health, our company goal is to transform the way healthcare is delivered in this country by reinventing the payment model in a way that aligns financial incentives for the person, the purchaser, and the provider. Ultimately when that is the case, the only consideration is the next best action for the patient. We also believe strongly that this type of care should be available to all, not as a ‘buy up’ but as a standard.”
