Few things are as personal as healthcare. Patients place their trust in a provider’s hands — not just when they’re sick, but also to help guide them to make better health decisions to live better lives.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Providers are working in a system that many times rewards volume over quality, which can make access to care and building trust with your provider difficult.
This obviously isn’t working — not for patients, not for providers, nor for the industry as a whole. Healthcare is confusing and costs too much, and at times, it can be difficult to get access to care. This causes too many people to avoid getting the treatment they need, and they miss the opportunity to build a relationship with a provider to focus on preventive care.
Providers, meanwhile, can spend their days on a treadmill, rushing through patient after patient, rarely spending the quantity of time they’d like to provide quality care.
There’s a better path forward. We know it, the industry knows it, and the patients know it. The challenge is how to get there.
Reshaping values
Somewhere along the way, the idea that the patient is at the center of healthcare became lost. Now it’s time to get it back on track.
At apree health, our values define who we are and how we manage care. Our vision is to solve the affordability crisis in U.S. healthcare. Our mission is to reimagine how America delivers and pays for healthcare. And as for our values as a company, we believe in:
- Putting the person first
- Continuous innovation
- Making a real impact
- Building trust
- Taking a team-based approach
These aren’t just words. To us, they’re the framework for everything we do, both internally and externally. They are the roadmap for how we interact with each other as colleagues and with patients.
Let’s dig into each of these values a bit:
Person-first
Whether someone is a team member or a patient, we meet the person where they are and tailor our interactions and care to meet the unique needs of each individual.
Innovation
We believe in a culture of continuous improvement and creative thinking where teammates from all parts of the organization are encouraged to surface new ideas, embrace challenges, and always think with the outcome in mind.
Impact
We strive to impact the well-being of each individual we work with and serve, and we are dedicated to impacting U.S. healthcare through innovation and delivery of care.
Team
The health of those we serve can only be made possible through a collaborative approach. So we strive to foster an inclusive community that respects diverse perspectives and furthers our success by working horizontally across silos.
Trust
As an organization, we are dedicated to establishing trust and reliability in all interactions, both internal and external. We believe this trust is crucial for accelerating positive change and outcomes.
Values in action
Our advanced primary care (APC) model is designed to improve health outcomes for our patients and reduce the total cost of care.
The foundation of APC is a strong relationship between patient and provider. That’s the person-first element. By allowing our providers to spend more time with each person they treat, they are better able to offer care that treats the whole person rather than only a specific ailment.
In the APC model, our care centers are more than a lobby and exam rooms. They are a medical hub where patients receive 80-90% of care in the primary care setting and through coordinating specialty care. This allows our care teams to coordinate, follow up, and incorporate results into each patient’s care plan without the need for them to hop from location to location to receive the care they need.
Additionally, we have robust virtual care options that are fully integrated into our model, making it even more convenient for patients to access care when and where they need it.
This virtual care isn’t the only way we’re leveraging technology. Our focus on innovation drives us to put data sets from claims, EMR data, and user-generated surveys to work to inform how we can tailor our APC model for specific populations.
Meanwhile, our Castlight app provides both patients and our care teams with all the collective information they need to drive better health outcomes.
Patients are able to easily navigate through their care journey via the app, reducing the time and energy they need to simply get the help they need. And providers are able to build and monitor a care plan that encourages, rather than discourages, their patients to take control of their health goals.
Together, these two foundational elements of our model allow us to make a substantial impact with those we serve — an impact that offers benefits for the industry as a whole.
The more people are engaged with their health the less likely they are to require expensive treatments. And this savings reaches both employers offering healthcare plans to their employees and, in aggregate, the entire industry.
Our remaining values, team and trust, go hand in hand. Internally, we are always focused on having an inclusive and collaborative environment, one where accountability is shared and teams trust one another to work toward the same goal of helping people live healthier lives.
In our care centers, the idea of a team approach takes on a literal meaning, with Health Coaches and Care Guides working closely on the shared goal of helping patients be proactive with their health. Again, our vision is to treat the person rather than the problem, and the team approach allows us to build the trust between patient and providers that makes that possible.
Making a difference one person at a time
Fixing America’s ailing healthcare system is a marathon, not a sprint.
As we continue to work toward building the first integrated health network that combines data-driven personalization, a coordinated care model, and aligned incentives, our values as an organization guide every step we take.
If you’d like to learn more about us and our work, or you are interested in joining our growing team of passionate individuals focused on improving the lives of others, check out our current job openings.
