Transforming such possibilities into reality is the mission of one ambitious health-care start-up that opened its second Boston office on Monday. Nine-year-old national chain OneMedical operates doctor's offices like a gym membership: pay an annual fee and receive personalized, expedient, comfortable health care. Its benefits have garnered the attention of established companies like Adobe, Lyft, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston's own Eze Software, all of which offer memberships to employees. With $181.5 million in funding and bold promises like same-day, on-time appointments and 24/7 "virtual care," OneMedical is one of several emerging companies to pioneer the health care of the future.
The company's new office opens Monday in Copley Square, on the sixth floor of a modern building on Dartmouth Street. Like its first Boston office at Government Center, OneMedical strategically plants its more than 250 providers and 50-plus offices across the country - each equipped with typical doctors' check-up rooms, labs, and modish waiting areas — in central city locations. The target patient-audience are those working nearby in the city, the same people who can typically afford an annual $199 payment for personalized medical service.
But the fee does deliver on the company's promise to customize members' experiences, offering service rarely found at a conventional practice. Since OneMedical's inception in 2007, parent company 1Life Healthcare developed its own in-house software to refine data-sharing across its own network and to the patients themselves.
A handy smartphone app offers members the ability to schedule same-day appointments, seek 24/7 care over the phone, access most of their medical records and renew prescriptions. Some patients can even be treated without ever stepping foot in a doctor's office: Users can show conditions like rashes, allergies and infections to doctors through photos in the app's "Treat Me Now" feature, which doctors can often diagnose online.
"The balance of the virtual care means less burnout for us," says Julie Sugarbaker, a nurse practitioner and six-year employee of OneMedical. Before switching to the company, Sugarbaker worked for a private practice and in community health care. As only one of two providers at the new Dartmouth Street location, Sugarbaker says it is the digital system at OneMedical that allows them to function with so few health professionals.
"I don't even know what percentage of emails or phone calls I don't deal with during the day, because they're handled by the virtual team," Sugarbaker says. She laughs, saying patients often thank her for "fitting them into her schedule."
"They don't know the back end that goes into reserving a percentage of same-day appointments and our process," she says.
Dr. Tom X. Lee, who conducted his own medical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, founded OneMedical in San Francisco nine years ago with a medical degree and master's from Stanford Business in hand. Lee was studying at the Washington School of Medicine when he began to recognize problems that plague small medical practices today: long wait times, provider burnout, impersonal relationships with patients, expensive insurance rates.
"We think overall, we want to change health care, and that isn't just within our foundation, that's within the industry," says Katie Dally, communications manager for the company. With its niche somewhere in between a large hospital system and a smaller private practice, Dally says Boston is a great location for OneMedical. "We have the utmost respect for the medical environment in Boston."
Dally added that while the company can treat certain urgent medical needs, its providers forge relationships with specialists in their area to refer patients when necessary. She also says most insurance providers are accepted by OneMedical, including Medicaid in most states. The initial $199 membership fee only covers access to the digital tools: Co-payments are left up to insurers, as in the case of many other doctors' offices.
Are startups like OneMedical the shining example of the doctor's office of the future? That remains to be seen. But with growth across eight market "hubs" in the United States — including the Massachusetts capital considered a beacon of health care — it looks like the company has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
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