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In fairness to One Medical, there's fraud like Theranos where the core conceit of what they're selling isn't actually _real_, and there's shady activities that

In fairness to One Medical, there's fraud like Theranos where the core conceit of what they're selling isn't actually _real_, and there's shady activities that are going to get them what I would hope is a pretty serious fine and some consequences (but who knows, America) like engineering some line cutting for vaccines, or the class action wherein they very significantly downplay that anyone can book an appointment manually without paying the fee. At its core, One Medical is still offering actual healthcare services. I use them and appreciate the convenience of the app and integrated EMR that they offer. I'm not pleased about the shadiness here, obviously, but it's still so wildly better an experience of primary care that I'm not going to switch over it.

reureu 5y ago
That's true - One Medical is definitely responding to a real need (lack of easy access to primary care). I don't think they'll outright collapse like the other examples, but I would think/hope there's a major shake up in their leadership. They've done a good job at creating a real loyal base of customers, but they've also painted themselves into a corner with their business model. On one hand, they sell memberships en masse to self-insured employers claiming they lower total cost of care so can save them money. On the other hand, they're building partnerships with large healthcare systems, where the partners view One Medical as a source of insured patients that will eventually need specialty services. But large healthcare systems are notorious for being expensive. So, their two main business models are in conflict with each other. I think some of the things we're seeing are a reflection of this lack of a coherent strategy, and some of the flailing that comes with different arms of the business having opposing needs. It's interesting you mention their integrated EMR. One Medical builds their own medical record system and patient app. My understanding is it doesn't use any of the standards the rest of the health tech world uses, which is why (last I heard) they weren't offering HealthKit integration -- not that there's not a demand for it (with such a tech focused user based, I imagine it's a common request), but rather they couldn't deliver on it quickly because their infrastructure just isn't set up that way.

reureu 5y ago

That's true - One Medical is definitely responding to a real need (lack of easy access to primary care). I don't think they'll outright collapse like the other examples, but I would think/hope there's a major shake up in their leadership. They've done a good job at creating a real loyal base of customers, but they've also painted themselves into a corner with their business model. On one hand, they sell memberships en masse to self-insured employers claiming they lower total cost of care so can save them money. On the other hand, they're building partnerships with large healthcare systems, where the partners view One Medical as a source of insured patients that will eventually need specialty services. But large healthcare systems are notorious for being expensive. So, their two main business models are in conflict with each other. I think some of the things we're seeing are a reflection of this lack of a coherent strategy, and some of the flailing that comes with different arms of the business having opposing needs. It's interesting you mention their integrated EMR. One Medical builds their own medical record system and patient app. My understanding is it doesn't use any of the standards the rest of the health tech world uses, which is why (last I heard) they weren't offering HealthKit integration -- not that there's not a demand for it (with such a tech focused user based, I imagine it's a common request), but rather they couldn't deliver on it quickly because their infrastructure just isn't set up that way.