[Alert - this post is openly brown-nosing a friend’s new venture launch. And I’m glad to do it!]

Super nice and authentic guy Dr. Jay Parkinson, whom i count as a personal friend and all-around good man, is officially opening Hello Health’s first store-front office this evening.  I sincerely wish that Nashville wasn’t so far away from NYC as I’d really like to be there to personally support and congratulate him.

Hello Health is located in NYC area or more specifically: Williamsburg at 105 Berry and North 8th Street. Members pay a $25 monthly fee, and an additional $75-100 per visit depending on condition.

His idea: target those who are uninsured, and offer them doctor services on a pay-per-visit basis, with the option to text, IM or email when you have questions or concerns. In a new development, Parkinson has decided to franchise his operations (which he now describes as "Geek Squad as doctors with a Netflix-type subscription fee") and is opening his first brick-and-mortar storefront.

I am neither in NYC nor uninsured. But, dang , I wish that someone in Nashville would get "ballsy enough" to open here in Nashville - as I would be one of the first people to sign up.

Ironically, as more employees begin to realize that they are getting more financial responsibility shiffted on to their own shoulders, an obvious unintended shift is/will happen — people are natural consumers and will want [nay, expect ] a better healthcare consumer experience when they spend their own dollar.

Yes, I would expect to hear about more and more people willing to pay for a Hello Health in their city.

“The doctors said he’s comin’, but you’ gotta pay in cash”

-The Eagles

We’ve enjoyed a bit of a free ride for the past several decades when it comes to healthcare. Employers and the government have picked up much of the tab. But now we are starting to pay the price literally. Increasingly we are asked to pay for medical services. Locally, The Tennessean just featured a piece on a doc who is going to charge his patients $1,500 annually to maintain access to him. We had best get used to it.

I have nightmares of other businesses becoming like our current healthcare system. In these night terrors, I go to buy groceries, pay a $20 co-pay and then get the bill 30-45 days later, can’t understand what it is I got, have already consumed the product and am expected to pay far more than I would ever have dreamed it might cost.

Predictable costs in healthcare will have to become more the norm. Concierge healthcare is becoming more popular. Just ask Jay Parkinson, M.D. who has had a concierge practice in NYC and is starting Hello Health. He uses REAL docs, not nurse practitioners like the retail based clinics (RBCs), but like the RBCs, Hello Health has [gasp] transparent pricing. You will actually know what you are paying at the time of service. Novel concept.

It’s a different way of thinking and doing business on the healthcare front, but it has tremendous merit.

Our unfettered access to the healthcare system has taken much of the responsibility for our health off of our hands.  As partial proof of that, we can point to our obesity epidemic, overprescribing of drugs for any small ailment and overuse of the system (even I have kids who go to the doc at every sign of a sniffle, and then feel silly for being asked what I’ve done to treat it - I noticed it and brought them to the doc). Not only have we stopped being responsible for the cost, but we’ve also stoped being responsible as a society for understanding and managing our health. I’m guilty.

Now we are paying the price.