Dive Brief:
- Forward, a medical office startup founded by CEO Adrian Aoun, announced its arrival to the world on Tuesday, Business Insider reported.
- Aoun, a former Google employee, is joined by ex-pats from prominent tech companies Uber and Facebook and has received investment funding from the likes of Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Marc Benioff.
- The service, currently offered in San Francisco, costs $149 a month in lieu of insurance and/or a co-pay, Tech Crunch reported.
Dive Insight:
According to Business Insider, Forward's take on care delivery twists the concept of concierge care, a model some detractors believe favors wealthy individuals. Forward's services boast a smattering of services, including basic screening, blood tests, wellness services, wearable monitoring as well as access to an artificial intelligence system.
Armed with the bells and whistles of a modern tech startup, Forward is adding to the growing list of companies seeking to disrupt the care delivery system. As the industry attempts to shift patients away from over-utilizing hospitals and lead to more of an outpatient/preventative care model, patients are being seen on a spectrum of acuity. This is markedly different from the traditional fee-for-service model. Therefore, companies are looking to make fiscal gains while offering access to high quality care services across the acuity continuum. For another recent example, Oscar opened a primary care clinic in Brooklyn for its members.
"Healthcare is not a repair shop but an ongoing relationship," Aoun was quoted in USA Today. This quote shows exactly how care delivery providers are beginning to think about customers in the long term. As a fee-for-service model is slowly chipped away, provider-patient relationships will be increasingly important as that could help fuel a doctor "brand loyalty."