Dive Brief:
- Amir Rubin has been named CEO of One Medical, CNBC reported.
- Rubin was most recently EVP & divisional CEO at UnitedHealth's Optum and served as president and CEO of Stanford Health Care from 2011 to 2016.
- One Medical founder Tom X. Lee will continue to serve the company as executive chairman, CNBC's Christina Farr reported, adding the company is not anticipating a sale to a larger health system.
Dive Insight:
The announcement comes as the healthcare industry is looking for lower-cost and easy-to-access options for patients.
Companies like One Medical come with venture-backed funds and present to patients same-day appointments and telehealth options, all of which can be managed with an app on a smart device. “The reality is, when people get sick, they don’t want to have to wait,” Sandeep Acharya, vice president of growth for One Medical, told Healthcare Dive in January. “There is a tremendous amount of anxiety they are dealing with.”
A recent Advisory Board Company survey found 57% of hospital executives were primarily concerned with improving patient access to outpatient settings. And that makes sense in tandem with their second concern: expense reduction.
As this year has shown, hospitals are facing declining admissions and rising expenses. Some have laid off employees in the face of these trends while others have looked to consolidate or looked to new revenue and/or referral streams.
Primary care clinics are one such avenue. There are more than 3,000 retail clinics currently in operation, and one in three consumers having visited one, according to a December 2016 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute. That's up from 90 or so retail clinics in operation in 2006.
Healthcare providers — despite the lingering questions if retail clinics actually save money or reduce emergency department use — are looking to get into the business.
At the turn of the year, Oscar and Mount Sinai opened their first full service primary care center while medical office startup Forward Healthcare, run by former Google employees, announced it's debut in January. Hospitals are even eyeing vacated mall spots as a potential area to set up clinics.
While Farr reported that One Medical isn't looking for a sale, the idea wouldn't be surprising if a sale actually occurs. One Medical's business line makes it an attractive opportunity for a health system willing to pony up the necessary funds (Farr noted the company is reportedly valued at least $1 billion) to expand into the outpatient access setting and there has been an increase of large health system M&A activity this year.