According to a recent Commonwealth Fund report, Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System, the U.S. health system continues to fail in its fundamental mission to protect Americans’ health, ranking last among the study’s 10 nations on key health equity, access to care, and outcome measures. We spent more than 16 percent of GDP on health care in 2022, far outpacing other nations. That figure is predicted to exceed 20 percent by 2035. It’s safe to say our healthcare system is in crisis.
With every crisis, there’s opportunity. Innovations to fix the system are at a fever pitch, with AI fueling the frenzy. There are more start-ups, more investment funds; more tech gurus focused on healthcare than ever before.
There’s one tried-and-true approach that’s gone next level to deliver outstanding results: high-touch care. It’s no longer just for the well-off. It goes deeper into data. And it’s even scalable.
MedZed and Root Functional Medicine are two providers leading the charge in high-touch care. At first glance, they could not be more different. Their services, members and customers, and even their employees, are at opposite ends of the spectrum:
- MedZed provides and coordinates health-related services to high-risk, hard-to-find Medicaid and Medicare members, partnering with health plans to integrate members into the healthcare ecosystem. MedZed excels at finding, engaging and building trust with members to address their health-related social needs, (re-) connecting them to the healthcare system, and enabling them to be self-reliant. As a result, the company reduces inappropriate utilization to lower the healthcare costs of the highest-cost, unengaged Medicaid and Medicare populations.
- Root Function Medicine takes a holistic approach to healthcare by addressing the root causes of illness. The company considers the interconnectedness of the body and treats patients as whole individuals rather than just focusing on specific symptoms. Root Function Medicine combines traditional and alternative therapies to help patients achieve optimal health and wellness. The company does not partner with health plans; their patients pay out of pocket. They also work with companies interested in saving money on long-term healthcare costs by investing in their workforce in the short term.
But look a little deeper, and you’ll see at their core, the two companies share the same values and approach to care; both have built their success on providing personalized, comprehensive care to the people they serve. Both companies share key characteristics of seeing a person for who they are, really listening to them, and going the extra mile to make sure they get what they need.
According to Tami Colver, MedZed’s chief people officer, “Community Health Navigators (CHNs) are the heart of our company. We hire qualified people who are bilingual from the community and know the local issues and resources to support and guide our members. To a person, they are passionate about giving back to their communities. They excel at building relationships of trust with members, and they take the time to get to know the whole person and understand their complex needs and challenges. Once trust is established, our CHNs work one-on-one, in person to evaluate and prioritize our members’ needs, help them overcome their health-related social issues, reconnect them to primary care physicians and specialists, and coach and motivate them to become advocates for their own health.”
And MedZed’s results speak for themselves. According to MedZed’s Chief Growth Officer Enrique Balaguer, “MedZed’s exclusive focus on serving the high-risk, hard-to-find population is evident in its results: 40% enrollment rate of total referrals, 38% decrease in ER visits, and a 54% decrease in inpatient admissions. The company’s CHNs engage 80% of 50% of their referrals.”
Root Functional Medicine takes the same hands-on approach with their patients – though they are a completely different demographic in a totally different context.
Dr. Emily Cordes, DO, IMCP, a member of the Root Functional Team, said, “For hundreds of years, physicians and the medical community have been directed to find the disease and then give the pill to cure it. But this “pill for the ill” mentality does not give us the outcomes we’re looking for, especially when we treat chronic diseases. While primary care physicians play an important role, they don’t have the time to go in-depth with an individual’s health — risk factors, lifestyle, nutrition, and other factors. What we’re looking for in functional medicine is what is the root cause of the problem. Functional medicine is a different way of thinking about disease, chronic disease, and wellness in general. We’re able to provide a level of care that really is more individualized and looks at the root causes of symptoms and chronic disease.”
Comparing these innovative companies shows that high-touch care can make all the difference for people, no matter the situation. The commonalities that make this unlikely pair a match:
- They hire only exceptional, dedicated people with passion and put them at the hub of their operations
- Their teams go the extra mile to get to the core of what’s preventing their members/patients from getting the healthcare they need
- Both connect the dots for their members and patients; teams at each company consider and address their needs holistically, and breakdown silos in the healthcare system to work more holistically, and finally
- Each requires a minimum of three months of treatment to ensure they have an impact on their members’ and patients’ health
- Their operations are scalable, with each having a presence in states across the country.
Bottomline, the healthcare system in the United States needs an overhaul. Companies like MedZed and Root Functional Medicine are leading the way in providing innovative, high-touch healthcare solutions that prioritize personalized, holistic care and long-term impact. By building trusting relationships, addressing complex health-related social needs, and empowering individuals to take ownership of their health, these companies are making a real difference in the lives of their members and patients. Here’s hoping industry innovators can take a page from the respective books of each of these leading innovators to improve health outcomes for all Americans.