Dr. Juliet Breeze launched a network of urgent care centers — where a visit can cost as little as an insurance copay — and is exploring ways to deliver affordable health care.
Dr. Juliet Breeze was watching her four kids splash in the pool in their southwest Houston home, when she saw her son pop up from underwater and start screaming, clutching his ear.It was Saturday and the pediatrician's office was closed, so she took him to a freestanding emergency room in a strip mall. She figured it couldn’t be that expensive. Then, a few weeks, she was billed about $1,000 for a five-minute visit that would have cost $60 at her pediatrician’s office.
More than 30 businesses, employing from 10 to 2,500 people have enrolled in Next Level Prime, generally paying about $60 per employee per month. In the first year, member businesses saved an estimated 50 to 75 percent on basic medical services, such as doctor visits, lab work and other non-emergency care, according to Next Level.
In 2006, while managing her husband’s practice, she began pursuing her own ventures. She teamed up with two former Accenture employees to develop a rehabilitation hospital, surgery center and medical office building.She has since sold those properties, but it gave her the experience and credibility to start her own company — and raise $5 million to launch Next Level Urgent Care.
Next Level had no shortage of COVID patients, and Breeze offered to help. Varadhachary suggested clinical trials. Breeze recognized a chance to develop a source of revenues for the clinic — drug companies pay fees to providers that host trials — and help her patients. She and her team began writing to pharmaceutical companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly about holding trials at Next Level clinics for their monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19, citing the clinics’ previous experiences. Regeneron agreed. Eli Lilly soon followed.
“So many companies are dealing with labor shortages, and there's a lot of competition in the labor market,” Breeze said. “Offering employees free, basic health care may make the difference between retaining an employee or not.”Houston safety net hospitals may struggle to treat uninsured as COVID funding shrinks
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