Only a yr after launching as an organization, Bluebird Children Well being is already asserting plans to double its variety of pediatric clinics from three to 6.
The corporate — which for now, operates solely in Florida — seeks to enhance pediatric care entry in underserved areas by constructing practices in these neighborhoods and accepting all insurance coverage varieties. Practically half of all kids within the U.S. are coated by Medicaid, but a lot of their households have a tough time discovering pediatricians who will settle for their insurance coverage — creating troubling pediatric care deserts in lower-income communities.
This drawback implies that households in these communities are sometimes compelled to make use of emergency rooms for his or her routine care wants, which regularly leaves them saddled with 1000’s of {dollars} of debt, stated Chris Johnson, Bluebird’s founder and CEO.
“Kids on Medicaid typically have emergency division and hospitalization charges that resemble Medicare sufferers — which is stunning when you think about these are typically wholesome children. This isn’t only a healthcare difficulty; it impacts training when kids miss faculty, financial mobility when households can’t work on account of a toddler’s well being wants, and total group wellbeing,” he defined.
Bluebird goals to offer a uniform, high quality expertise for all households — regardless of the kind of protection they’ve, Johnson famous. The startup’s enterprise mannequin is constructed round value-based care preparations with each Medicaid and industrial payers.
The corporate’s mannequin additionally integrates behavioral well being into major care as a way to tackle a serious hole in pediatric companies, significantly for Medicaid sufferers, Johnson added.
Since launching three clinics in Palm Seashore County final yr, Bluebird has grown to serve greater than 20,000 sufferers.
Over the course of the summer season, the corporate will likely be opening three new de novo places — two in Jacksonville and one in Broward County. These clinics are deliberately sited in pediatric care deserts the place entry to pediatricians is restricted for lower-income households, Johnson acknowledged.
“As we seemed for the optimum spot to website these new practices, we primarily checked out a metro space and understood the place there simply aren’t sufficient pediatricians to serve all the kids that reside in that group. These are usually lower-income communities. There’s only a pure evolution that’s occurred within the healthcare system, the place lots of healthcare entry factors are usually in higher-income communities — and that’s occurred during the last 30 to 40 years. We’re making an attempt to counter that by bringing entry to those households and these kids which have struggled to get entry — our doorways are open to everybody,” he declared.
The brand new clinics are additionally positioned in high-traffic retail areas, close to public transit and group facilities, to make them straightforward to succeed in. They provide prolonged night and weekend hours, on-line and cellphone appointment reserving, walk-in availability, and digital and telephonic care choices — all decisions that have been made to spice up accessibility, Johnson defined.
Within the yr that Bluebird’s unique three clinics have been working, the corporate is already experiencing a excessive demand for its companies, he added.
“We’re seeing nice demand and traction as a result of we’re finding our clinics in these areas of excessive unmet want. We’re additionally seeing that we’re having a very nice shopper expertise — our mum or dad form of Internet Promoter Rating is constantly north of 90%. We’re additionally having actually excessive worker satisfaction, so we’re capable of entice and retain prime quality workers,” Johnson remarked.
Kids’s healthcare outcomes are enhancing as nicely, he identified.
He stated that Bluebird’s care mannequin has lowered emergency division visits by greater than 50% and inpatient admissions by almost 70% amongst its sufferers. These outcomes stem primarily from proactive administration of frequent pediatric situations like bronchial asthma and nervousness, Johnson stated.
Earlier this yr, the startup raised $31.5 million in Sequence A funding. Within the subsequent couple of years, Bluebird will probably increase into new states — comparable to Georgia, Texas, Virginia and the Carolinas — in response to payer curiosity in its value-based care mannequin, Johnson acknowledged.
Picture: Steve Debenport, Getty Photographs
