This just came across the newswire:

Hint Health, the leading provider of membership management, billing, and direct contracting infrastructure for direct care and membership-based providers, today announced its strategic partnership with RubiconMD, the leading eConsult platform providing access to specialist expertise. The collaboration will provide direct care organizations and membership-based practices in the Hint Health community with special access to RubiconMD’s eConsult platform for same-day access to insights across 120 specialties and subspecialties including cardiology, infectious disease, and psychology.

“Joining forces with RubiconMD means the growing number of direct care organizations and membership-based primary care providers can now drive additional value through specialist insight within the walls of their own practice,” said Zak Holdsworth, CEO and Co-Founder, Hint Health. “Through this collaboration, physicians can stay at the center of their patients’ care journey while confidently delivering a higher-quality care plan, reducing the total cost of care, and improving both the patient and provider experience by saving time compared to a traditional referral model.”

Under terms of the agreement, the more than 1,500 clinics and enterprises in nearly every state across the country who rely on Hint Health’s HintOS™ member management platform will have streamlined access to RubiconMD to easily and quickly discuss eConsults with leading specialists. The RubiconMD eConsult platform enables specialists to deliver advice in under three hours on average, and nearly 80% of primary care physicians have reported these insights have improved the quality of their care plan. The model also delivers cost savings by avoiding unnecessary referrals 45% of the time, reducing procedures, labs, and emergency visits. Additionally, the platform integrates with most electronic health records and can be seamlessly incorporated into existing clinical workflows.

This is very interesting news. Many of you may have heard that Rubicon was recently purchased by Oak Street Health for $190 million. Things are definitely moving fast in the DPC world. Full disclosure, Hint Health does advertise on this site. That being said, I am still going to say that all this corporatization of DPC scares the crap out of me. I just pray that DPC doctors are allowed to stay independent and not get scooped up just like the physician practices were by the hospitals years ago. That would kill this movement.