The landscape of healthcare is constantly evolving, and employer-sponsored care is no exception. Here, Founder & CEO John Collier discusses the shifts that have taken place at Proactive MD over the past year and shares his vision for the future.
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If you are at all familiar with the employer-sponsored healthcare space, you will have noticed that 2020 has been the year of mergers and acquisitions. As so many previously smaller and more niche providers join to create large corporations, our industry is increasingly trending toward consolidation.
I have become well acquainted with the inherent challenges of such consolidation. A little over a year ago, Proactive MD acquired Indiana-based Direct Primary Care provider Wellness for Life. The work of acquisition has been challenging and required the great effort of many: aligning goals, standardizing service expectations, developing departments, implementing new technologies, renovating Health Centers—the list goes on and on. It has not been a perfect journey and there has certainly been plenty of heartache along the way, but with it has come increasing clarity of our mission.
Our singular hope from the very beginning of this process was to serve patients better, and it is this hope that has tempered us through some of the more difficult moments. We knew that Wellness for Life’s strengths—virtual technology, direct care, and an innovative outlook–when delivered in combination with ours would be a powerful force for good. We have spent the last year adapting and refining those strengths to support our Patient Promise. One year later, I can confidently say that this intentional and consistent focus on patients has been the single greatest key to a successful acquisition.
Further, and by all accounts, a successful acquisition is exactly what we have achieved. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are steadily growing our footprint across the country, continuing to innovate in data analytics and patient care, and expanding our products and service lines through unique and powerful clinical integrations. Most importantly, we are more equipped than ever before to fight for our patients’ greatest good.
I anticipate that as we move into 2021 and beyond, the big organizations in our industry may continue to grow through consolidation. However, Proactive MD’s future will look different than that of our fellow direct care provider groups. Our aim is not growth for the sake of growth, and we do not believe that getting bigger will automatically make us better. Where expansion will help us lead and serve, we will expand; and where agility will help us serve, we will remain small enough to be swift and nimble. Because no matter how large we become, if we are not serving with excellence, we are not achieving success.
Over the next several weeks, I’m excited to show you what creating success looks like at Proactive MD. As we continue the work essential to building a bright future for our clients and patients, we will be featuring many of the ways that patient care, service, and innovation are flourishing as a result of our acquisition. We hope you will join us in our celebration!
With gratitude,
