PA Startup Offers Concierge Doc, Fitness Facility Under One Roof

June 16--Pine, PA-based ConnectedHealth LLC is aiming to help people improve their health by giving them all the professionals they need -- a doctor, nutritionist, health coach, personal trainer and pharmacist -- under one roof.

The privately held startup company opened its first wellness center this month, and it's trying to build on an approach by health systems and insurers to better coordinate medical services between multiple practitioners, and prevent people from landing in the hospital.

But there's one important difference. ConnectedHealth does not accept insurance. Members pay a minimum of $2,100 a year for access to a doctor who's available around the clock. The doctor subscription, known as concierge medicine, includes a gym membership, a health coach and limited sessions with other providers, such as personal trainers, a nutritionist and pharmacist. Individual services also can be purchased on a monthly basis, such as $300 for three months of sessions with a nutritionist or $50 a month for the fitness center.

"We're trying to capitalize on the growing retail focus of health care," said Michelle Leibow, president of ConnectedHealth. "To live within health insurance today, we couldn't do this. We would have to be limited by, and driven by, volume of patients."

A typical primary care doctor oversees more than 3,000 patients, Leibow said. ConnectedHealth is aiming to keep its patient-to-doctor ratio low by having no more than 600 patients per physician. The company has one full-time and one part-time doctor on staff now, and has capacity at its center for up to 10 physicians, she said. So far, they have signed up 125 people.

Providers, insurers and the government are trying to figure out how to change the health care system to incentivize doctors to perform fewer procedures and keep people healthy. But it's difficult because the economics of health care are set up to pay when people are sick, not to keep them healthy, Leibow said.

"Health care today is sick care," she said.

ConnectedHealth has 17 employees, including health coaches, personal trainers, a nutritionist, a pharmacist and other support staff. The company was founded by Leibow, a former executive with large pharmacy companies including Walgreens and CVS; CEO Betty Rich, a pharmacist who co-founded and sold two specialty pharmacy companies; and Chief Operating Officer Mike Fox, a personal trainer and former gym owner.

By going around health insurance and only taking self-paying patients, Leibow said ConnectedHealth is able to give more time and better service to its patients. She said a typical primary care physician spends an average of nine minutes with a patient at each visit. A first-time member at ConnectedHealth will spend about three hours with their doctor and other team members, she said. And the doctors are always on call.

Many experts are trying to figure out how to reduce the country's runaway health spending and improve medical outcomes, said Dennis Scanlon, a health economist at Penn State University. Prevention and wellness are getting a lot of attention as a solution, he said.

"There is an understanding that our medical model in this country has emphasized the high-tech when an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure," he said.

But ConnectedHealth is potentially limiting its market to only people with higher incomes, he said. "They're really catering to the affluent."

The company is also jumping on a trend of concierge medicine -- in which doctors end their relationships with insurers and government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and collect larger fees from a smaller number of patients as a way to provide better service.

"There's a lot of wind in the sails of private medicine," said Tom Blue, chief strategy officer at the American Academy of Private Physicians, a Richmond, Va.-based nonprofit representing concierge doctors.

There are about 6,500 such doctors in the United States, he said, and their numbers are growing by about 25 percent a year.

In addition to marketing itself to self-pay clients, the company is also having discussions with employers, Leibow said. She is trying to persuade companies to pay for their employees to use ConnectedHealth's doctors, fitness center and other services as a replacement for the wellness programs that many employers have instituted.

"We believe we can show reduced health spending immediately to employers," she said.

But Leibow doesn't expect ConnectedHealth to replace health insurance. She said the company's customers will still need insurance to cover prescription drugs, specialists and major illnesses or surgeries.

But for preventive medicine, she said the all-in-one wellness center she and her partners have developed can help people reduce their need for more expensive health care services.

"We're trying to remove all the barriers to what is difficult for us in achieving our health care," she said.

Alex Nixon is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7928 or anixon@tribweb.com.

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