A New Option to the Crowded ED: Concierge Care

Launched in 2016 in New York as Priority Private Care, Sollis is building a business model through partnerships with consumers, primary care providers, and businesses who want to avoid the traffic and time spent in an ED, which sees more than 130 million visits a year. The company offers a concierge care model that bypasses payers, and also offers a range of services that include diagnostics, labs and vaccines, virtual care, specialty care, even house calls.

Olson is quick to point out that Sollis Health is a disruptor, but not necessarily a competitor to health systems and hospitals—he notes the company has partnerships in place with more than 30 health systems for everything from ED services to specialty consults. He notes one clinic is located not far from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and is partnering with the hospital even while giving consumers an alternative to Cedars-Sinai’s ED.

The ’disruptor’ moniker is important. Olson, a former executive with Peloton and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, brings a retail mentality to healthcare that is propelling companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Walgreens in the healthcare space. He notes that consumers are turning away from hospitals and health systems because of the complexity and cost of healthcare, and they certainly don’t want to wait several hours in a crowded hospital waiting room for fragmented care that leads to more scheduled visits in other locations.

Disruptors like Sollis Health and other concierge care companies are luring consumers away from traditional healthcare organizations with the promise of convenient, personalized care. And Olson says Sollis equips its clinics with ER-trained and boarded clinicians, many of whom also work at nearby health systems. Sollis also offers a range of services that stand-alone and retail urgent care clinics do not.

Olson says Sollis Health reaches out to health systems and hospitals to suggest partnerships, particularly in specialty care services, and those organizations haven’t sought out Sollis Health to help with crowded EDs. But the opportunity is there for healthcare executives to see disruptors like Sollis Health as a valuable resource, giving patients another option to access care.

“We definitely don’t compete with them,” he says.

Olson emphasizes that Sollis Health’s growth is in the consumer market, and in building out its concierge care to attract more primary care providers and businesses looking for alternatives to the ED or retail urgent care space. He says payers have expressed interest in this model of care, though the company currently isn’t working with any insurance companies and is focused on membership and cash-only payment plans.

“Our biggest challenge right now is explaining who we are and what we do,” he says. But once that connection is made, the value becomes evident.