Consumer / Employer

Hint Health Aims To Expand Direct Primary Care Through New Partnership

The partnership is with Nextera Healthcare, a Colorado-based direct primary care provider. Nextera will join Hint Health's Hint Connect platform, a network of direct primary care providers for employers and third-party administrators.

Hint Health, a digital health company for direct primary care (DPC), announced a new partnership with DPC provider Nextera Healthcare on Wednesday. The partnership aims to expand the network of DPC providers available for employers.

San Francisco-based Hint Health’s HintOS product helps DPC providers with member enrollment, billing, invoicing, payments and other services. These providers can service both employers and consumers, the latter of which pay a monthly membership of $50 to $100 for unlimited access to primary care. The company also offers Hint Connect, which provides a national network of DPC providers to employers and third-party administrators. Longmont, Colorado-based Nextera, meanwhile, was the first DPC provider in Colorado and has grown to offer care in over 100 locations in Colorado, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the East Coast. It serves both employers and consumers.

Through the partnership, Nextera is joining Hint Connect’s network, which includes over 350 clinicians. This means that any employer that contracts with Hint Connect will be able to provide its employees with access to Nextera’s providers, along with any others in the platform, said Zak Holdsworth, co-founder and CEO of Hint Health. For example, if a large employer group is looking for direct primary care providers in Colorado, Nextera will show up as an option.

Additionally, if Nextera is looking to add more providers to its network, they can do that through Hint Connect, Holdsworth stated.

“[Nextera] can actually turn around and say ‘Hey, we need to have DPC clinics in Texas.’ They can turn around and contract with those DPC providers in Texas through Hint Connect and expand their footprint,” he said in an interview. “They don’t need to go out and build that network themselves. They’re participating on the supply side of Hint Connect, but they’re also on the demand side.”

Nextera is already using the HintOS solution and has a strong relationship with Hint Health, Holdsworth said. But by joining Hint Connect, the company is able to reach more employers across the country. Hint Health, meanwhile, is able to deepen its presence in Colorado, which has the highest number of DPC clinics per capita. The state has nearly 90 DPC clinics that care for 63,000 patients.

“The Hint Connect partnership will allow for increased reach as Nextera Healthcare continues to expand our footprint in taking care of employers across the US,” said Dr. Clint Flanagan, founder and CEO of Nextera, in an email. 

Through this partnership, Holdsworth hopes to make make DPC more mainstream. DPC patient membership has grown by 241% in the U.S. from 2017 to 2021, according to a report by Hint Health.

“My goal is to be able to help Nextera and many other providers that are part of Hint Connect grow faster,” Holdsworth said. “If we can help them grow faster, then we can help the [DPC] movement grow faster. That’s really the prime objective of Hint Connect. It’s really designed to be an accelerant to the growth of the movement.” 

Hint Health recently expanded its company by acquiring AeroDPC, software company and electronic medical record for DPC clinics. Other direct primary care companies include Forward Health and EverMed. There are about 1,600 DPC practices in 48 states, according to the Direct Primary Care Coalition.

Photo: mikdam, Getty Images

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