WeWork Creator Awards Detroit Application

Today, we submitted our application for the WeWork Creator Awards! I really enjoy submitting applications for contests like this, because it helps me to clarify our mission, vision and values. And it's an opportunity to learn and grow through outside feedback about our internal operations. 

In the application, they ask: "What problem is your idea, business, or organization solving?" For us at Plum Health, it's all about providing high-quality Family Medicine services in the community. It ain't sexy and it ain't super exciting, but it's so darn necessary! Having excelling primary care services in your neighborhood saves costs and improves health outcomes.

As they put it in this linked article, "One primary care doctor per 10,000 people in the U.S. can decrease hospital admissions by 5.5 percent, emergency room visits by 11 percent and surgeries by 7 percent."

This point is salient in Detroit, where there is an epic primary care shortage. Currently, there are only 50 - 100 primary care doctors in the City of Detroit for 680,000 people. That's 1 doctor for every 6,000 - 12,000 people. I recently wrote an article about this in the Detroit News.  

Historically, this has been a difficult issue to solve because practice location for doctors is often tied to reimbursement from the community. Primary care doctors have avoided Detroit because more than half of Detroiters are on Medicaid, which generates low reimbursements.

With Plum Health, we do not rely on government or third party payers of reimbursement. Instead, we bill patients directly: $10/month for children and $49 for young adults, which covers all doctor's visits, texts, phone calls, and emails.

Additionally, members also have access to wholesale medications, at-cost lab work, and at-cost imaging services. From January - May 2017, we have saved our members roughly $15,000 on their meds, labs, and imaging. We are here to provide a tremendous amount of value to our patients and our community.

Our ask for the WeWork Creator Awards: help us reach our goal of providing value for the community by supporting what we do at Plum Health DPC!

The WeWork application continued with the following question: "How do you, your business, or your organization interact with the community?" Put simply - we are imbedded within the community and provide ours services to community members.

At Plum Health DPC, we take care of folks of all ages, races, ethnicities, and orientations. We are practicing on the street level, open and accessible to the community. Our youngest member is 14 months old, our oldest is 63 years; some of our members earn less than $30,000 and cannot otherwise afford health care. These folks are often shut out of the traditional insurance system because they cannot afford the premiums.

In addition to serving our paying customers in the community, I regularly volunteers at Cass Community Social Services' Clinic in Cass Corridor and the Student Run Free Clinic at I-94 and Conner. Here, I'm able to deliver free care to the most vulnerable members of the community - typically the homeless and uninsured.

Finally, Plum Health is regularly at health fairs throughout Detroit, performing free health screenings for non-profit organizations and church groups.  

The last major questioned asked in the application was about how we would use the money if we won: "If you were awarded a grant, what new benchmarks would you be able to reach?" We are doing pretty well at Plum Health, adding new members each month and growing at a sustainable pace. However, if we won the Creator Award, we would be able to grow more quickly and therefore serve more people in Detroit and beyond.

Specifically, A grant of $18,000 - $36,000 would allow us to lease a larger office space and hire a second doctor. In a city with such limited primary care options, hiring a second doctor to work in the city would make a substantial difference in the lives of the people in our community.

We've taken care of folks who earn less than $30,000 and we've seen people who haven't been to a doctor in years, living in fear of generating large medical bills, and living with the consequences of their worsening high blood pressure and diabetes. Without the grant, the goal of leasing a larger office space and hiring a doctor would be at 6 - 12 months. With the grant, these goals would be achieved in 3 - 6 months.

Thanks so much for reading more about what we do at Plum Health DPC, and if you're a member of the WeWork community, thanks for taking the time to read our application and this blog post!

Sincerely,

- Dr. Paul with Plum Health DPC.