Transforming Health and Care with Text-First Virtual Care

By Pani Shoja, MD, Senior Associate Medical Director

Like everything else, virtual care is evolving. It’s no secret the pandemic forever changed how we engage with our healthcare and gave virtual care the advance it needed to reach the majority. Now, as a new sense of “routine” has resumed and the novel becomes normal, the stage is set for true innovators to lead.

With healthcare becoming more complex, costly, and confusing than ever before many believe we’re at a pivot point that opens the door for true innovation in healthcare to take hold. At the Transcarent Clinic we’re demonstrating that virtual care is the ubiquitous front door to care that it should be, providing people with easy access to high-quality, affordable health and care. To accomplish this, virtual care must be instantly accessible from anywhere at any time. It must be easy to use without barriers of cost or time; and be a trusted source of consistent, reliable care, and compassionate engagement.

A tall order for some; but for us at Transcarent, it hits right at our sweet spot. We’ve built our text-first virtual care solution from the ground up to be rooted in evidence-based, high-quality care, and Member engagement with practice standards written by our affiliated provider group and reinforced by our proprietary smart technology. From primary care to urgent care needs, we’re consistently connecting Members to the comprehensive care they need to stay healthier, save money, and avoid unnecessary emergency room visits. The proof of the efficiency of our high-quality, text-first approach is in our results:

• A 93 percent resolution rate for virtual clinic visits.¹

• $263 cost reduction per visit, based on average cost for alternative options and Member utilization of virtual primary care.²

• 45 percent reduction in emergency room and urgent care visits.³

Not only are we having a positive impact in our Members’ lives, but we are reducing the burden on the system, freeing up our brick-and-mortar clinical colleagues for the most emergent and urgent patient needs. I’ve treated Members on the way to the emergency room and even expedited the care of Members waiting to be seen in emergency rooms – quickly triaging care that doesn’t require emergency attention, reducing costs (many times at no-cost to the Member), and allowing them to get back to their lives faster.

With our text-first approach, I can help break down barriers to care. It helps decrease stigma, reduce waste, reinforce accuracy of treatments, and allows for quick a transition to video virtual care as needed or requested by a Member. Our smart intake process automatically asks the right questions to help Members get to the root of their issue and fosters more precise and uninhibited dialogue. Each answer a Member provides generates new questions that help the clinician reach an accurate assessment of each encounter.

The entire visit is entered verbatim into our clinical support tool which is supported by our propriety practices standards to ensure consistency of treatment across clinicians, uniformly engaging them in our care standards. This both reduces margins of error and feeds our quality metrics to ensure we are consistently delivering the best standards of evidence-based care.

At the Transcarent Clinic, we truly practice as one. It’s fulfilling to know that no matter which of my colleagues a Member sees, the pathway of care and engagement will be consistent based on their condition. This results in a smoother visit for Members and helps us build trust and reduce any anxieties about seeking care.

As a physician, I’ve never been more empowered in my practice. I’m able to engage Members in more detailed and meaningful conversations giving me the opportunity to fully connect with them and engage in personalized education that improves adherence and long-term health. Since the encounters are text-first, the Members have easy access to everything that was said during a visit, which encourages us as clinicians to be even more clear, concise, and compassionate in our communications.

I’ve had the privilege of becoming a part of our Members’ everyday lives, treating the busy parent from the sidelines of a soccer game - to the professional sitting in an all-hands meeting. We are fitting into our Members’ lives at the moment they need us which is tremendously gratifying. THIS is the next generation of high-quality, personalized virtual care engagement and I’m excited to help drive this innovative meaningful change.

¹Determined resolved as any visit that did not result in a referral to primary care, post-visit survey, Mar 2021 - Mar 2023

² Transcarent Book of Business

³ Transcarent Book of Business