By Molly Sherman
“Patients told me what they wanted,” said Dr. Barron Nason, board-certified Emergency Physician and founder of NasonCare. “And I listened.”
“Where’s the popcorn?” asked one patient watching a movie, awaiting CT scan results. The next time they were there, so was the popcorn (and granola bars and drinks). “It’s not because of the snacks, it’s because it says something,” said Dr. Nason. “It says we care. And that’s what it’s all about.”
Listening to and meeting the requests of patients is at the heart of Dr. Nason’s development of NasonCare. In a patient-first model for healthcare, Nason is bringing urgent care visits and primary physicians, employer payments and employee care and convenience, together.
Upending the complications and drawbacks of the healthcare insurance, Nason extends a medical membership which offers all of the Nason services: primary, urgent, and employee care. Membership holders have unlimited access at no fee to the check-ups, lab work, consultations, medications and whatever else they need. “NasonCare is the only facility that is a total care facility, where all you have to know is: just go to Nason.”
Dr. Nason reflected on his ‘yesterday,’ having seen hypoxia, head trauma, and a pregnancy. “We’re able to handle all of those different problems,” said Dr. Nason. “And there’s just no other urgent care that they can do that.”
To accommodate the large Hispanic and Brazilian populations in South Carolina, the NasonCare staff is trilingual. Many of these patients are accustomed to paying up front for care, presenting an opportunity to educate about alternative formats for accessing medicine.
The conventionally recognized model for healthcare often follows a fee-for-service model: the way providers make money is when patients come in and pay per service and insurance billings. “With a medical membership, we’re not trying to bill anybody anything – you’ve already paid for it,” said Nason.
After establishing care, patients can connect to Nason from anywhere – there’s no need for them to come in for every treatment, so they can even get prescriptions filled from states away.
In their membership model that puts patients first, the cost of care comes out of NasonCare’s pocket, rather than the patient’s because they’ve already paid their membership. This approach removes the incentive of providers to unnecessarily pursue expensive treatments and doing so “takes out the concern of ‘Why do they want to do the test?’” said Dr. Nason. The only answer will be: “It’s medically necessary – that’s why.”
Those interested in a membership can contact their employer, their employer can contact NasonCare for more information and to receive a savings quote. The NasonCare offerings stand to help lower employer insurance payments, avoid unmet deductibles and give employees care proportional to their needs. “The employer saves money and now the employee actually has access to healthcare.” Accessible, excellent healthcare equips employers to organically recruit and retain employees – and be able to afford it.
The result of patient-driven work is healthcare that works for patients and employers. Learn more about how to bring NasonCare to your place of work at nasoncare.com.
