LONGMONT, Colo. & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nextera Healthcare and ImagineMD are pleased to announce they have partnered to form a single Direct Primary Care (“DPC”) organization. Together, Nextera and ImagineMD will bring DPC to more employer groups and patients, open new clinic locations across the country, and partner with additional like-minded DPC practices and clinicians.
DPC is an innovative healthcare delivery model where patients, or their employers, pay a fixed monthly fee for access to a wide range of preventive, primary, and acute healthcare services, bypassing traditional insurance. DPC provides high-quality, accessible, and cost-effective care for many healthcare needs and is growing in popularity among employers looking to offer improved primary care benefits which drive overall healthcare plan savings.
Nextera Healthcare, headquartered in Longmont, CO, operates a DPC service that contracts primarily with large, self-funded employers and is integrated into their benefit design to lower cost and improve employee satisfaction with employer-sponsored healthcare. Founded in 2009 by Dr. Clint Flanagan, a Board-certified family medicine physician, Nextera Healthcare is one of the original pioneers of the direct primary care model. Today, Nextera Healthcare operates its own clinics throughout Colorado and manages one of the largest physician-led and owned networks of DPC clinics with hundreds of affiliate locations throughout the country.
“We are celebrating our 15th year at Nextera Healthcare and are thrilled to have ImagineMD join us,” said Dr. Flanagan, who serves as Chief Medical Officer of Nextera Healthcare. “They have built a tremendous DPC business serving employers in Chicago. Our companies are mission-aligned and we believe this synergistic partnership will serve as a catalyst for growth as we continue to offer best in class DPC for employers. Many employers in the US are underserved on the primary care front and we are focused on providing a solution to meet their employees’ health care needs.”
ImagineMD, headquartered in Chicago, IL, operates DPC clinics throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, serving the employees of Chicago-based employers. ImagineMD specializes in strategic benefit plan design and partners closely with employers to optimize their benefit offerings to lower cost and improve patient access and outcomes. Founded in 2016 by Dr. Alex Lickerman, a Board-certified internal medicine physician, and Rhea Campbell, who currently serves as Chief Administrative Officer, ImagineMD operates five clinics throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
“Our vision is to transform most, if not all, primary care in the U.S. to direct primary care where all patients can enjoy the benefit of immediate access, better care, and improved outcomes,” said Dr. Lickerman. “Our ambition at ImagineMD has always been to scale direct primary care—done right—across the country. With the partnership of ImagineMD and Nextera, we now have a single platform with which to accomplish that aim.”
Together as one organization, Nextera Healthcare and ImagineMD will represent one of the largest physician-led DPC services, with over a dozen owned clinic locations and hundreds of affiliate locations across the country, providing accessible, cost-effective, and high-quality care to thousands of members. The combined organization is actively exploring opportunities to open additional owned locations in new states outside of Colorado and Illinois.
“We believe the partnership between our two companies represents a turning point for the DPC movement, and we anticipate that we will all look back one day and identify this as the moment that the DPC movement accelerated,” added Dr. Lickerman.
If you are an employer or benefits advisor and want to learn more about Nextera Healthcare and ImagineMD’s DPC offering for employees, please contact Nathan Houghton (nathan@nexterahealthcare.com).
If you are a clinician interested in partnering with or joining Nextera Healthcare and ImagineMD, please contact Dr. Clint Flanagan (drcflanagan@nexterahealthcare.com) and Dr. Alex Lickerman (alickerman@imaginemd.com).
To learn more about Nextera Healthcare, please visit www.nexterahealthcare.com.
To learn more about ImagineMD, please visit www.imaginemd.com.
