Premise Health Expands Virtual Access to Long-Term Primary Care

Premise Health, a provider of healthcare services to self-funded employers, labor unions, and associations, is expanding its virtual care model by allowing members to choose a digital provider as their long-term primary care physician.

Premise Health offers care in two ways: through its more than 800 brick-and-mortar wellness centers, and through its centralized Digital Wellness Center, a cloud-based portal where members can schedule appointments, interact with their providers, and access their health information. The in-person wellness centers all integrate with the Digital Wellness Center, which also provides access to telehealth services for primary care, behavioral health and occupational health as well as online pharmacy services.

"Members have a choice," said Jami Doucette, president of Premise Health, in a phone interview. "Part of what we've learned in COVID is meeting members where they are, when they need their care, is critically important. So, members have a choice to either engage with us in-person or engage with us virtually."

Previously, members could only choose a provider from one of Premise Health's onsite wellness centers to be their long-term primary care physician. But now, with the expansion, members can choose a provider from the Digital Wellness Center as well.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was episodic and reactionary, and in many cases an on-demand service only, but virtual care has become more robust over the course of the public health emergency, according to Doucette. In April 2020, Premise Health delivered about 85 percent of its visits virtually. That figure has since stabilized in the 30 percent to 40 percent range.

"I don't think patients or members were thinking about choosing a virtual physician as their [long-term] primary care provider two years ago," Doucette said. "[The question] really is how do we evolve the care delivery model in a COVID environment to deliver the…best value to members. And here we are, in a position where members can choose a virtual primary care physician as their primary care physician."

The main goals of the expansion are to remove barriers to care for members and deliver a better member experience and improved clinical outcomes, not just at a particular moment in time, but over time, Doucette added.

Research shows that having an established primary care provider has a significant impact on quality measures, including death rates. One study, published in 2019 in JAMA Internal Medicine, shows that every 10 additional primary care physicians per 100,000 people was linked to a 51.5-day increase in life expectancy.

Premise Health's clients include some of the largest companies in the country, including United Airlines and UHaul. Premise mainly provided in-person primary care and wellness services until January 2020, when it launched its virtual primary care service nationwide.

The expansion takes its virtual care services one step further, especially as it appears increasingly likely that remote work will continue for the foreseeable future.

"We really think that remote work or hybrid work environments providing a variety of access points to high-quality and affordable care is going to be critically important in succeeding in delivering value to members and clients," Doucette said.

Further, with the new Omicron variant, which federal officials warn is poised to overrun the U.S. in the coming months, the pandemic is far from over.

"We're watching Omicron quite closely," Doucette said. "The Digital Wellness Center has been an invaluable access model in COVID, where members can access those physicians for screening, for testing, for advice and for care navigation throughout their COVID journey. While we would love to put OCVID behind us, it is still here, and we do see continuing value in a virtual care environment."

Doucette is not alone in seeing that value, with a majority of providers and patients saying they plan to continue using telehealth in the future.