This post has been updated from an earlier version.
PediaQ sees an opening in the concierge care industry by having nurse practitioners with pediatric experience make house calls for anxious parents concerned about a sick child. The Texas company so far has established a customer base in Dallas and plans to add Houston next month ahead of a national expansion in September.It was originally set up as a direct-to-consumer model when it did a soft launch in May last year. It charged $150 or more depending whether the call was after 10 pm.
But in an interview with COO Matthew Vuckovich and founder and CEO Jon O’Sullivan at the Health and MedTech eEpo at SXSW, Vuckovich explained that it now pursues a business-to-business-to consumer approach and works with managed care plans. It charges the equivalent of an urgent care co-pay of $35 to $65, depending on the plan, with an additional $25 convenience fee on top of that. Its website claims that these urgent care visits are covered by most insurance companies.
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The company claims to treat the general litany of everyday illnesses such as flu, strep, asthma, ear infections and sinus infections. Parents use its app to request a nurse, receive a call from the nurse and if necessary the nurse will come over between 2pm to 10 pm during the week and 8 am to 10 pm on the weekend.
Vuckovich noted that the advantage to its service is that unlike other healthcare professional on call businesses that rely on primary care physicians or specialists, its service is dedicated to pediatrics. He added that since September last year, it has recorded more than 1,500 visits. O’Sullivan said of the people who have used its service, 30 percent are repeat customers.
In November, it raised $1.2 million in a round led by Bill Miller who has served as a director and healthcare industry advisor to KKR Advisors, Jack Furst of Oak Stream Investors and HM Capital, and Gary Gerlacher, founder of Acute Kids Pediatric Urgent Care also participated, according to MobiHealthNews.
As part of its national expansion it plans to team up with hospitals. I call that ambitious and have not seen much evidence of that with other concierge care services. But maybe PediaQ will succeed where others have not or never bothered to go?
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