I saw this article when searching DPC. This dude talks about Cityblock like it is going to take over the country:
Cityblock is truly differentiating itself is in primarily serving low-income and Medicaid populations. Where many health systems might dedicate one residency to the most at-risk populations and try to break even, Cityblock is actively seeking out a high-risk market. They’re going out into the community to get patients into care earlier, meeting patients at church or in the grocery store and significantly, hiring their care teams from the same community.
And they’re getting a lot of attention from investors. In its latest funding round, Cityblock raised $160 million.
At first blush, this looks like Citybock is going after a difficult market. High risk. Medicaid. Awesome. But DPC docs do the same thing. Is Cityblock some sort of DPC model? Here’s some more from the article:
These new models of care began as a way to make care more convenient — companies like One Medical and Forward Health, which started by building and operating primary care clinics. They charge an annual fee to provide personalized and tech-enabled care, and cater to employers and wealthier individuals.
They were the forerunners. Now organizations are taking up the same model and transforming it, going beyond simple convenience to directly challenge the quality/cost equation.
They’re finding better ways to deliver care to higher end commercial patients through technology, but are also successfully taking on capitated risk in areas like Medicaid. They’re building their own clinics to control the cost of care, while using technology to attract patients and deliver better population health.
These organizations understand that in order to win the market, they have to control or reduce costs and show better outcomes across patient populations. In their playbook, this means winning over consumers and redirecting care from more expensive hospitals to less expensive, focused clinics.
One Medical and Foreward are forerunners? Nope. More like copycats. They are stealing the independent DPC doc idea and trying to scale it.
But what about Cityblock? Are they doing DPC? For the life of me, I cannot tell. Here is some of what I found out:
The startup operates from a platform of social justice and health equity for marginalized communities, eschewing the fee-for-service model in favor of a value-based one, collecting fixed payments per member and delivering care virtually in patients’ homes and their neighborhoods.
I like the premise of working within neighborhoods. I like the premise of working with the poor. But DPC docs do this all the time. Cityblock is obviously getting a membership fee but I do not know if it is from the insurance company or the patient. If it is from the former then they ARE NOT DPC. If they are working with insurance companies then they are not DPC.
All this has given Cityblock a $5.7 billion dollar valuation and they have raised over $400 million so far. Imagine how many independent DPC docs could open their clinics for this money. And they could give 10% away of their care to the poor for free (most do that now already).
I can dream. Instead, the money goes to the Silicon Valley geniuses who think they can outtech doctors and be better than them.
Is Cityblock a DINO (DPC in Name Only)? Maybe. Their name comes up when you search “Direct Primary Care”. And that makes me sad because they do not do what we do.