Health Care Startup Offers Doctor House Calls In Just A Few Clicks
Heal says it can send a doctor to a user’s door within two hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., any day of the year.
There’s a new player in metro Atlanta’s health care market offering doctor house calls with the click of a button.
Heal announced its expansion into the region Tuesday. The health care startup says it can send a doctor to a user’s door within two hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., any day of the year.
All users have do to is order the visit via the company’s smartphone app or website.
“We do vaccines. We do sutures. We do ultrasounds. We do EKGs, ear exams, eye exams: all off these things are things we can do in the home,” said CEO Nick Desai.
Desai said the Heal can provide a wide range of medical services and offers a variety of provider types from pediatricians to internists.
The idea, he said, is to eliminate some of the hassles often associated with visiting the doctor and make care more accessible to patients when and where they need it.
Desai also argues house calls have distinct advantages, like giving doctors more and better information about a patient’s health.
“When you go into a doctors office and the doctor says: ‘What medication are you taking?’ People will often say: ‘Well, the pink one.’ When we go into the patient’s house we can just say: ‘Show us your pill bottles. Show us the over the counter medications,’” Desai said.
Heal visits are covered by Medicare, he added.
And, in Atlanta, Aetna has bought-in to the idea. The insurance company said its customers can book a Heal visit for the same co-pay as a primary care doctor’s office visit.
“We like the simplicity and convenience of this new service option for our Commercial members,” Frank Ulibarri, Aetna’s market president in Georgia, said in a statement.
For now, Heal is only available to users in Gwinnett, Forsyth, Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Clayton counties. The company said it has provided 100,000 house calls since it launched in 2015.
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