Those models include membership-based care, mobile clinics and community health centers, which have risen as alternatives for people living in Katy and Fulshear.
What’s happening?
Membership-based care is designed for people who want access to medical treatment at a flat monthly or annual cost.
Next Level Urgent Care, a membership-based care clinic, began strictly as urgent care before shifting toward the membership-based care model—called Next Level Prime.
Chief Operating Officer April Gillam said beyond affordability, patients also enjoy the after-hours and 24/7 telemedicine access.
“Just like we all got used to Uber and DoorDash and Amazon, and we’ve gotten almost addicted to that easy button. People want their health care to be as easy as those radically delightful consumer experiences,” Gillam said.
Zooming in
Another option for patients are mobile clinics, which are doctors’ offices placed in large RV-type vehicles and driven to areas where people do not have access to adequate health care, said Kalondrea Davis, who serves as the clinical health services program director at Harris County Public Health.
Davis said the county’s mobile clinic program, which offers treatment at little to no cost, began six years ago and has grown to three RVs specializing in health services and one in dental.
Services offered include:
- Immunizations
- Wellness exams
- HIV and STI testing
- Pregnancy tests and contraceptive options
- Chronic disease and substance abuse screenings
- Nutrition counseling
“We recognize that there’s a lot of barriers in place for the community to obtain health services,” Davis said. “Being public health, our ultimate goal is to strengthen the community, improve health [and] improve access to health.”
Diving deeper
Individuals can also visit community health centers such as Spring Branch Community Health Center. Its Katy location offers family medicine, pediatric medicine and behavioral health in addition to offering cancer screenings, labs, physicals and vaccinations.
Director of Strategic Partnerships Bruno Gonzalez said that, on top of accepting private insurance, what makes a community health center stand out in the medical industry is that patients pay on a sliding fee scale based on their income and the size of their household.
“A community health center is a service that is available to anyone regardless of their ability to pay,” Gonzalez said.
AccessHealth, which has a location in Brookshire, also offers a variety of services, including family medicine, women’s services, dental care and counseling with fees on a sliding scale.
By the numbers
As the growing financial strain continues to impact patients, many physicians are taking on more responsibilities with their rising caseload.
Though burnout statistics for doctors have improved in recent years, over 43% of doctors have faced some level of burnout, according to the American Medical Association. While the overall workweek has shortened for physicians, the association found that a majority of doctors still spend time on electronic health records outside of work.
Ravi Aron, professor of health care strategy and technology at the University of Houston, said the supply of physicians and clinicians is not expanding to meet the demand for clinical services, with a report by the Texas Department of State Health Services showing the Texas physician shortage is projected to increase through 2032.
Why it matters
Aron said he believes a multitude of factors such as a lack of education, living in a rural geography and financial issues lead to difficulties in obtaining adequate health care.
“It’s a particularly heartbreaking, confounding trend because serious illnesses make you lose a job,” Aron said. “The loss of a job means you don’t have insurance, which means you don’t get good health care, which means you suffer more from serious illnesses—so it’s a vicious cycle that reinforces itself.”
While advancements in medical technology have grown exponentially, Aron said getting the resources to the masses is the most vital component to a healthy community.
Looking ahead
Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an online data tool that monitors the performance of the U.S. health care system, reports health care spending will reach 19.7% of the country’s gross domestic product by 2032, which has health officials looking at other alternative insurance options.
One example of that is a health cooperative, which aims to compete against private insurance by offering a member-owned cooperative that pays doctors and hospitals directly to keep costs down.
Art Goetze, CEO of Scoop Health, a health cooperative partnership with Next Level called Health Access Plus Prime, said similar to membership-based care, people pay a monthly fee to join Health Access.
Goetze said with a $1,000 deductible, a single person age 30-39 pays $316 per month, and a family of four in that same age range pays $778 per month.
Aron said other options to insurance include the universal single payer, where one entity is responsible for providing health care instead of multiple private insurance companies.
