Iora\u2019s business model revolves around providing primary care services to a population of patients. Iora partners with large companies, unions, and health plans to provide primary care to its employees, members or beneficiaries. Rather than using traditional fee-for-service payment model, Iora charges a flat fee per patient for its services and, in addition receives a percentage of any savings achieved if they are able to provide care for their population at a lower cost than traditional primary care providers. Their hypothesis is that by providing more comprehensive primary care, patients will be healthier and therefore less costly to care for overall. Incentives are aligned: if patients are healthier (i.e. stay out of the hospital), then payers achieve their goal of minimizing costs and Iora receives a portion of these cost savings.<\/p>\n
Business and Operating Model Alignment: the Key to Iora\u2019s Success<\/strong><\/p>\n Other new models of health care delivery have a similar business model to Iora, including the much talked about Patient Centered Medical Home model and Accountable Care Organization, but these have shown little promise because they have not fundamentally changed their operating models. Iora is so successful because its operating model is aligned with its business model. It achieves its goals \u2013 the \u201ctriple aim\u201d of improving patient experience, clinical outcomes, and affordability of care \u2013 through its unique delivery model. At Iora, a team of providers, including a physician, a nurse, and a health coach, cares for each patient. The health coach knows the patient best and heads up the team, alerting others when they are concerned about their patient. In most primary care practices, doctors lead the team while caring for a panel of 2000 patients. At Iora, each doctor cares for around 1000 patients and each health coach has only a few 100, allowing for significantly increased patient interaction. More frequent contact with patients, especially from a coach they know and trust, leads to improved preventative care, earlier diagnoses, and far superior patient adherence to treatment \u2013 all resulting in healthier patients and decreased health care costs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all about customer satisfaction<\/strong><\/p>\n The health care industry has been slow to embrace patient satisfaction as a key to success, but Iora recognizes the value in patient experience and strives to be an excellent customer service company \u2013 comparing itself to Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and Zappos. Unlike other health care providers, Iora has a flat organizational structure. Every staff member, from health coaches to physicians takes turns answering the phones in the office. Each clinic has daily meetings, run by a rotating staff member, where the most complex or sick patients are discussed. It is not unusual for a physician and health coach to talk to a patient for 45 minutes on the phone about why they are not taking their medications \u2013 and then to solve the problem. In other clinics this level of customer service is just not possible: there are no resources for these actions because organizations cannot bill for them.<\/p>\n Great, but can it scale?<\/strong><\/p>\n Iora defines itself as a business that is meant to scale. There have been several innovative and successful new primary care models, but few have grown beyond 1-2 clinics. Iora, on the other hand, had 11 clinics at the beginning of 2015 and is planning on adding 10 more this year. It has hired a franchising expert from Au Bon Pain as one if its chief executives to aid in growth. Because its business model depends on scale, the directors have made several operational decisions that would not make sense in a single clinic. The most fundamental decision was to develop an in-house electronic health record. This record focuses on user interaction \u2013 for both patients and providers \u2013 rather than on complex billing codes as most other EMRs do. Because they have dis-intermediated the payer process, they no longer require billing for each service provided, and therefore can focus on providing (and documenting) the services that result in improved outcomes, rather than high reimbursement.<\/p>\n Iora represents a culture change within the health care industry: its focus on customer satisfaction and employee engagement is unique. Outside investors agree that it has the potential to compete on a national level \u2013 Iora raised $28 million in venture capital funding earlier this year for a total of over $40 million invested. With net promoter scores higher than Apple and employee satisfaction consistently high, all while achieving greater than 10% cost reductions and 35% decreases in hospitalizations, it certainly seems that Iora has found a magic formula to achieve the elusive \u201ctriple aim.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Resources:<\/p>\n Iora Health Website: http:\/\/www.iorahealth.com\/model\/<\/a><\/p>\n Zakaras, Michael. Why Our System Talks Up (but actually fears) Disruptive Innovation. Forbes Magazine. http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ashoka\/2015\/10\/23\/why-our-health-system-talks-up-but-actually-fears-disruptive-innovation\/<\/a><\/p>\n![\"iora\"](\"https:\/\/i4tsk12in2b2y7uts14c528g-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/iora-300x168.jpg\")
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