Self-Funded Employer Health Plan Launches Virtual Primary Care

Self-funded employer health plan Centivo has launched a virtual primary care offering that will be integrated into the payer’s core health plan.

The payer has taken the virtual-first route and will allow members to receive regular virtual primary care from the same physician. Members can also access other healthcare professionals including mental health specialists and care navigators through Centivo VPC.

Patients will attend telehealth visits with their primary care providers via a mobile app. Members have the option of selecting a participating local primary care physician or a Centivo VPC doctor, the health plan said.

Centivo virtual providers can also refer patients to other in-network specialists if necessary.

“Traditional telemedicine solutions are built to sit outside the health insurance plan versus being connected to it,” Wayne Jenkins, MD, chief medical officer of Centivo, stated in the press release. “Centivo VPC is purposefully designed to fully integrate into the Centivo health plan and its foundational belief in advanced primary care via leading local providers.”

The virtual offering is currently available to self-funded employers and their employees in Florida. The payer plans to expand the service into additional markets during the first half of 2022. Centivo noted that a pilot program of the service showed strong member engagement with existing and new employees.

“The launch of Centivo VPC reaffirms our mission and model to make advanced primary care the key to reestablishing affordability for the average American worker struggling to pay healthcare bills,” Ashok Subramanian, chief executive officer of Centivo, stated in the press release.

One in four Americans do not have a primary care physician, Subramanian added, indicating that 25 percent of the population are unable to benefit from the positive health outcomes that can result from strong primary care relationships.

Telehealth has been shown to increase access to affordable care for patients and eliminate barriers such as traveling long distances to a clinic. Receiving primary care services via telehealth may increase convenience for patients while also improving their overall health outcomes. Virtual primary care is 95 percent as effective as in-person primary care services and costs around 50 percent less, according to Centivo.

A heightened need for primary care services coupled with the telehealth boom during the COVID-19 pandemic has led several payers to launch virtual primary care services.

Regence recently implemented a virtual primary care service for self-funded employers and their employees in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. The payer partnered with the telehealth platform MDLIVE to allow members to access virtual appointments with a primary care physician.

Priority Health in Michigan also launched a virtual-first primary care plan, which took effect at the beginning of 2021. The payer assigns members a primary care physician through Doctor on Demand. Members attend all appointments via telehealth unless a referral for in-person care is needed for specialty care.

In addition to live communication with a primary care provider, experts have found that asynchronous telehealth may help physicians connect patients with specialty care providers during their primary care visit, thereby handling all patient needs in one visit.