CityMD https://www.citymd.com, an urgent care chain, was hosted at a small group investor dinner meeting in N.Y City as part of Credit Suisse’s https://www.credit-suisse.com “Healthcare Disruptive Technologies & Innovations” series. Dr. Richard Park, Founder and CEO of CityMD, discussed how the company has achieved success and today has become one of the fastest growing Urgent Care Chains.
CityMD was founded in 2010, by Dr. Park and other physicians as a single Manhattan practice in New York City. The company has since expanded rapidly partly driven by mergers with Premier Care, State Health, Franklin, and First Med. The company now has more than 120 locations across New York, New Jersey, and Washington.
On June 20, 2019, CityMD and Berkeley Heights, NJ-based Summit Medical Group, https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com an independent medical group, recently signed an agreement to merge. Summit has more than 900 physicians at 80 plus locations including comprehensive ambulatory care campuses and a cancer center.
The company has an “AfterCare program to help a patient navigate through healthcare follow-up after they leave the sites. AfterCare helps coordinate follow-up appointments, fill medication scripts, and offers direct access to a healthcare professional when needed after the initial visit.
Dr. Park believes that every year around 30 percent of the patient visits are new which shows continued market opportunity. Roughly 50 percent of CityMD patients are commercial, 10-12 percent are Medicare, and 15-20 percent are Managed Medicaid with the rest of the patients paying cash or their payments can come from worker’s compensation etc.
The company’s core patients are 18-55 years old with commercial insurance. However, the company has generated pretty high return rates on Medicaid patients as well because of no co-pays. Medicare and Medicare Advantage are not as big a part of the company’s business that would require the company to expand chronic care capabilities.
Only 50 percent of the patients have a Primary Care Physician (PCP). Roughly 30 percent of CityMD’s patient visits are pure primary care, 30 percent visit a PCP such as with back injuries or another similar issue, and another 30 percent are high acuity. The hope is to expand high acuity capabilities as the company has been highly focused on hiring physicians who can handle high acuity patients.
CityMD has close to 600 physicians in-house. An average physician sees close to a high of thirty patients per day. However, in some CityMD clinics, the figure can be as high as 65-70 patients per physician per day. The wait time for patients is under 30 minutes and physicians spend less than five minutes per patient.
The company’s preference is to hire ER doctors or family practice internists. Dr. Park notes that the company can do most of what is done in the ER because most of their physicians are former ER doctors.
The company also has partnerships with Mount Sinai, Catholic Health Services of Long Island, Montefiore, and Hackensack Meridian Health. Dr Parks notes that these partnerships combine a hospital’s vast network of providers and CityMD’s urgent and clinical care management expertise, to create a unique model of timely access to healthcare.
Also, the company offers occupational health services in the employer market, by providing employee screening and compliance services on the job injury treatment, and a dedicated occupational medicine team. The company sees the opportunity to monetize employer sponsored near site clinics where people work and live, and intends to further utilize telemedicine and provide patient portal and effective care coordination.
For more information or to provide feedback, email Research Analyst Jailendra Singh at jailendra.singh@credit-suisse.com or call 212-325-8121.