ROGERS, Ark. — Monday, March 27, Simplified Health, the clinic planning to offer care to those without insurance, held its grand opening.
"Insurance kind of bogs down a lot of that stuff," said Dr. Blake Hansen, founder of Simplified Health. "[It] puts a barrier between the patient and the physician, we need to remove that barrier."
The clinic functions like a normal doctor’s office. Membership care costs start at $59 a month for adults and $29 for kids.
"I think of it a lot like your phone bill, your gym membership, or your Netflix subscription." Dr. Hansen said, "This is a monthly recurring subscription. That way you can have on-demand access to the physician when you need it."
There are also family plans, each coming with unlimited visits.
"So, we're really saving money because you're paying less for what you would pay for to go one time to those other little facilities," said patient Stephanie Forrest who has a family of seven, including 5 children under the age of eight. "We are at the doctor a lot."
The Forrest family relies on their pediatrician to help make sure their kids are healthy, but within the last eight years, the family has had four pediatricians.
"I just get so frustrated when the pediatrician was not there, and we just have to see someone else," said Forrest. "They don't know your family and if you have to deal with the after-hours clinic, it's a whole mess."
Dr. Hansen says one of his goals is to remove the harsh wait times in the waiting room, so he also acts as the secretary, "I come up and greet the patients right when they walk in the room"
"It's important to kind of keep the momentum of the office visit flowing," Dr. Hansen said. "People get stagnant and they get upset and we want to keep that light and comfortable for people."
For the Forrest family, it's the little things that make a big difference. "We're going to someone who knows our children who doesn't want to waste our time. He doesn't want to waste our money."
"Patients need better. Patients deserve better," Dr. Hansen said.
Dr. Hansen says the clinic can handle 90 percent of medical issues. "We want to keep people healthy, keep them out of the hospital, and keep them out of having expensive surgeries or heart procedures or whatever. If we can do that will alleviate a lot of the burden on the healthcare system. And a lot of the burden on your pocketbook."
5NEWS is told around 1,700 clinics nationwide operate on a similar subscription model to this one.
Simplified Health is located at 4803 Highland Knolls Road, Suite 150, Rogers, AR 72758.
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