The Future of Healthcare Is Advanced Primary Care

What Is Advanced Primary Care?

Advanced primary care turns standard fee-for-service healthcare upside down. As a model, it allows better access, trusted care teams, and appropriate specialty care. As a result, patients, providers, employers, and payers get the best healthcare experience of their lives.

Long term, advanced primary care creates a more efficient, effective, and accessible healthcare system that benefits not just employers, patients, and insurers, but their communities. People get healthier. Costs go down.

Say goodbye to the long waits, the frustratingly short appointments, the maze of specialty care, the high costs and stress — advanced primary care throws it out the window.

A foundation of true primary care

True primary care is primary care the way it was intended. It’s where patients and providers get the time they need to discuss health concerns, form meaningful relationships, and build trust. Care teams use empathetic listening and empower patients to take a proactive role in managing their health.

Advanced primary care does more

Advanced primary care builds on true primary care by adding in care coordination, informatics, and health coaching. Care coordination eliminates gaps in treatment that often result from specialty referrals. Informatics and claims data lead to effective population health initiatives. And, embedded health coaches guide patients toward better habits that address the root causes of health issues.

Better outcomes and lower cost

The advanced primary care model allows patients and providers to have the best health experience of their lives while reducing costs. Urgent and specialty care costs go down because providers have the time to engage with patients and coordinate high-value care. Engaged patients take ownership of their health and make better lifestyle choices that drive better long-term outcomes. And, engaged populations catalyze a culture of change that attracts others to improve their own health.

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Advanced Primary Care: The Front Line Of A Health Revolution

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How the Advanced Primary Care Model Works

Advanced primary care starts with improved access to care. The advanced primary care model allows for more time so providers can focus on whole health instead of just symptoms. With more time comes more trust. Patients who feel heard and understood are more willing to change. Embedded health coaches help patients make changes by guiding their actions to solve the root causes of their most pressing health problems.

Along the way, rich informatics offer providers the opportunity to deliver more appropriate, timely care to individual patients and broader populations. Over time, advanced primary care drives down claims, improves health outcomes, and drives long-term healthcare solutions for employers, payers, and communities.

For patients, advanced primary care delivers on the promise of what healthcare should be, but has never been. By emphasizing quality of care, risk identification, and behavior change, it creates informed and proactive patients who are more equipped to take action and take control of their health.

For care teams, advanced primary care offers the chance to practice in an environment that truly values connections with patients and offers both sides the resources needed to drive meaningful outcomes.

For employers, advanced primary care provides an ideal method for improving employee health while driving down costs throughout an organization. With benefits that include better population health and outcomes, along with higher satisfaction rates, it’s also a powerful tool for retention and recruitment.

For insurers, integrating advanced primary care into their plans allows them to increase member access to services and save on overall healthcare costs while raising value to members through better quality of care.

For hospital systems, putting accessible advanced primary care upstream attracts more members and drives more appropriate utilization of services downstream, increasing efficiency and lowering the total cost of care.

Long term, advanced primary care creates a more efficient, effective, and accessible healthcare system that benefits not just employers, patients, and insurers, but their communities.

6 Benefits of Advanced Primary Care

Stronger relationships with patients

Time-rich appointments give patients the opportunity to form better relationships with providers who have the time to unpack the root causes of a patient’s health concern. Stronger relationships help make patients more engaged and more willing to make lifestyle changes that address those root causes.

Better Care from Providers Who Love Their Jobs

Advanced primary care providers operate at the top of their licenses, delivering services that would normally be outsourced to specialists in the current system. By keeping most patient consultation and treatment “in-house,” the entire primary team is able to provide better care, with greater context regarding patient backgrounds, needs, and goals.

Improved Population Health

Claims data analysis gives providers more insight into community risk factors so they can better identify, engage, and help those most vulnerable to certain conditions and infirmities. It’s also easier to collect further data to track outcomes and new trends so that community needs are always met.

Appropriate Specialty Care

Primary care teams coordinate every aspect of specialty consultations or care. Clear communication ensures care gaps are eliminated and patient plans integrate any required follow-up treatment.

Empowered Patients

Health Coaches guide patients to form better habits and address underlying factors that are affecting their health. With this added guidance, patients start achieving their goals, whether it’s to lose weight, stop smoking, or simply build healthier lifestyle behaviors.

Providers Patients Trust

A care center allows patients to receive the majority of their healthcare in one place from a team they trust. Establishing trust puts patients more at ease with seeking out help and more likely to follow through on their treatment.

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What Makes Vera’s Approach Different

Vera Whole Health has been at the vanguard of advanced primary care (APC) education and public health management since 2012. We have the resources, knowledge, and experience to help members, employers, and insurers understand and implement APC.

Superior Advanced Primary Care Delivery

The advanced primary care model allows providers to focus on the whole person, not just their symptoms. Vera’s model of advanced primary care identifies risk factors through claims data, engages with patients about their health proactively, and intervenes on their behalf through personalized care plans and coordination with other providers and specialists. The primary care team stays informed and involved at every stage, even when specialist care is necessary. This superior level of delivery ensures the best outcomes for Vera members.

Vera Care Centers

Our advanced primary care centers centralize member healthcare. This allows us to control the quality of a member’s entire healthcare experience. Members receive the majority of consultation, treatment, and follow-up they need at one convenient location from one dedicated primary care team at little to no cost.

Whole Health Councils

Vera’s Whole Health Councils help build a culture of health and infuse it throughout the community. Councils include select people from all parts of an organization. They collect feedback and make suggestions so that accessing advanced primary care is easier and more beneficial for members. Companies then have an active hand in shaping the way advanced primary care is delivered to best suit their employees’ needs.

Embedded Health Coaching

Every Vera care center includes health coaches who embed into a member’s care team. Coaches use empathetic listening to connect with members and empower them to take control of their health.

How the approach of Vera teams makes a difference

Every Vera care team uses empathetic listening to foster better connections with members and co-workers. That approach results in a unified approach to care plans. Because of the significant connection between lifestyle and health, Vera care teams are also trained in the transtheoretical model of change. With behavior change as the goal, providers and health coaches meet members where they’re at and empower them to take ownership of their health and change their behaviors.

Learn more by downloading our free eBook: Advanced Primary Care: The Front Line Of A Health Revolution

Find out more about the advanced primary care model, its benefits, and its opportunities for patients, employers, and insurers by downloading our free eBook.

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Vera's advanced primary care services are available in the State of Washington to:
1. Individuals designated by a registered or admitted health carrier: An individual who a Washington state registered or admitted health carrier ("Carrier") contracting with Vera has designated as qualified to obtain Vera services and who is enrolled in such Carrier's:
(a) fully insured group plan; or,
(b) administered self-insured group plan; or,
(c) reciprocal network access program [such as the BlueCard program]; or,
(d) fully-insured plan issued through a state or federal program; or,
(e) fully-insured individual plan.

2. Individuals Designated by a Self-Funded Employer or Self-Funded Union Trust: An individual who a self-funded employer or self-funded union trust contracting with Vera has designated as qualified to obtain Vera services.