Bringing back the power of the close doctor-patient relationship and improving access to healthcare is the focus of a new collaborative partnership between the New Jersey Health Insurance Fund (hi) and R-Health, a leader in Direct Primary Care based in Elkins Park, Pa.
The "hi" fund will be piloting R-Health's model of enhanced primary care with members of the Schools Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), powered by PERMA Risk Management, that will provide participants with more personalized, high-touch primary care designed to improve patient outcomes, increase access to doctors, and reduce costs.
"This collaboration is the next logical step in our strategic efforts to be able to offer the best models of high-quality primary care services to our members," said Paul Laracy, a PERMA Risk Management Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the NJ Health Insurance Funds.
"R-Health is delighted to partner with the 'hi' fund and we truly believe our transformative primary care solution will deliver an exceptional healthcare experience and improved health outcomes for participants," said Mason Reiner, Co-Founder and CEO of R-Health. "We applaud the 'hi' fund's contemporary, forward-thinking actions as they look for innovative ways to enhance the care they can offer to members."
Through the partnership, select SHIF members will have access to R-Health primary care doctor's offices at multiple locations across the state. More information can be found at https://www.r-health.md/shif/. The program, available at no additional cost to SHIF members, includes enhanced care management, focus on servicing chronic health conditions, and proactive outreach to members for follow-up about tests, future care visits and other available services that are beneficial to their treatment.
Some of the R-Health benefits include:
- Highly trained physicians (All experienced and board certified in Family or Internal Medicine)
- More time with the doctor (Doctors see less than half the number of patients compared to a traditional doctor)
- Convenient appointments at 7 NJ locations and 1 location in PA
- 24/7 access using a secure app that allows for messaging, photos and video visits with the doctor
- No co-pay or out-of-pocket costs, EVER
- On-site labs and pharmacy services
"This is a return to old-fashioned healthcare when the doctor's focus was to serve the patient," said Joe DiBella, Managing Director and Executive Vice President of Conner Strong & Buckelew. "So many physicians today struggle with balancing shorter time frames spent with increasing loads of patients versus the time spent on the business aspects of the practice, and often the paperwork wins. Partnering with R-Health will put the priority back on patients and reduce the administrative strain for doctors."
Finding ways to put the put the focus back on patient care is nothing new to the "hi" fund. In January of this year, the "hi" fund launched a partnership with the Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates program to provide dedicated nurse advocates that work exclusively with SHIF members who have chronic health conditions or catastrophic illness, and their families, to help navigate the healthcare system and obtain the services they need. Initial response to the program has been extremely positive and there have already been enhanced patient outcomes from those participating in the program.
"The "hi" fund is committed to finding new, effective solutions to enhance the member experience, quality of care and hold the line on costs," noted Laracy. "Our commissioners have been progressive in their thinking and are excited to add R-Health to our family of solutions, one we hope to roll out to more members over time."
The Schools Health Insurance Fund is a member of the statewide New Jersey Health Insurance Fund Family which includes six Funds, two Insurance Commissions and one Reinsurance Health Insurance Fund. The SHIF is the largest of the Funds and serves 76 schools across the State of New Jersey. The Funds collectively are the largest non-state operated benefit pools for public entities in America.
State-wide, the New Jersey Health Insurance Funds have an annualized budget of more than a half a billion dollars, cover nearly 70,000 participants from more than 230 public entities, including school districts, municipalities, counties, utility authorities, and fire districts. The New Jersey Health Insurance Funds provide complete benefit services and products including health, pharmacy, dental, vision, COBRA and retiree benefit administration, wellness, personalized health coaching, tele-medicine, population health services and benefits automation.
