Only a 12 months after launching as an organization, Bluebird Children Well being is already saying 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. Almost half of all youngsters within the U.S. are lined by Medicaid, but lots 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 downside 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 hundreds of {dollars} of debt, stated Chris Johnson, Bluebird’s founder and CEO.
“Youngsters on Medicaid usually have emergency division and hospitalization charges that resemble Medicare sufferers — which is stunning when you think about these are typically wholesome youngsters. This isn’t only a healthcare challenge; it impacts training when youngsters miss faculty, financial mobility when households can’t work on account of a baby’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 business payers.
The corporate’s mannequin additionally integrates behavioral well being into main care with a view to tackle a significant hole in pediatric companies, notably for Medicaid sufferers, Johnson added.
Since launching three clinics in Palm Seaside County final 12 months, Bluebird has grown to serve greater than 20,000 sufferers.
Over the course of the summer season, the corporate shall be opening three new de novo areas — two in Jacksonville and one in Broward County. These clinics are deliberately sited in pediatric care deserts the place entry to pediatricians is proscribed for lower-income households, Johnson acknowledged.
“As we seemed for the optimum spot to web site 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 dwell in that group. These are typically lower-income communities. There’s only a pure evolution that’s occurred within the healthcare system, the place quite a lot of healthcare entry factors are typically in higher-income communities — and that’s occurred during the last 30 to 40 years. We’re attempting to counter that by bringing entry to those households and these youngsters 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 telephone 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 12 months 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 extremely nice shopper expertise — our guardian sort 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 top quality employees,” Johnson remarked.
Youngsters’s healthcare outcomes are bettering as properly, he identified.
He stated that Bluebird’s care mannequin has diminished emergency division visits by greater than 50% and inpatient admissions by almost 70% amongst its sufferers. These outcomes stem primarily from proactive administration of widespread pediatric situations like bronchial asthma and nervousness, Johnson stated.
Earlier this 12 months, the startup raised $31.5 million in Sequence A funding. Within the subsequent couple of years, Bluebird will seemingly broaden into new states — resembling Georgia, Texas, Virginia and the Carolinas — in response to payer curiosity in its value-based care mannequin, Johnson acknowledged.
Photograph: Steve Debenport, Getty Photos
