Doctors receive monthly fees per member instead of payment for services

What Is Advanced Primary Care?

The Purchaser Business Group on Health in San Francisco, a nonprofit coalition representing employers, defines APC as a comprehensive care delivery model that combines several reforms rolled out in recent years. Employers contract directly with primary care providers, replacing fees for services with monthly per-member payments. The primary provider coordinates care with a patient-support team that includes mental health counselors and wellness coaches, and makes referrals to high-quality specialists. Other aspects of this coordinated care model can include access to telehealth services and clinics that are onsite at the workplace or nearby.

Although even APC’s most enthusiastic backers say it’s too early to present evidence of cost savings at scale, 2021 was the year that big corporate names put some big chips on the table. In May, JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) launched Morgan Health, starting with an investment of $250 million in “promising health care solutions and overall system improvements,” both for its own employee benefits program and in partnership with other employers.

“The kinds of things we would like to leverage for our employees either don’t exist today or don’t exist at the scale that would be required for an employer like us,” said Dawn Alley, Morgan Health’s managing director of health care innovation. “Through that investment, we are looking at young companies that have the ability to help us with our mission around affordability, quality and equity.”

One of those young companies is Seattle-based APC pioneer Vera Whole Health, into which Morgan Health invested $50 million last August. Vera is partnering with JPMC to deliver advanced primary care to JPMC employees in Columbus, Ohio, to test the concept for the rest of the company. Vera is also Baylor College of Medicine’s partner in its APC venture.

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