Hi! I’m Dave Metzger and I’m the Chief Clinical Officer at AdvanaCare Inc.. At AdvanaCare Inc. my team and I are on a mission to increase access to very affordable healthcare, and at the same time, raise the quality of healthcare for all Americans. I previously worked at Kaiser Permanente – the largest healthcare provider in California – for 15 years where I saw firsthand the impact of doctor-led healthcare transformation.
We are glad to have an opportunity to share how we deliver on our mission in a way that has the support of and is in compliance with state medical boards who are charged with ensuring their state residents safety when accessing care.
We welcome all inquiries from state regulators and medical boards to contact us.
AdvanaCare Inc. is a medical group enabled by technology that provides care online. We are an online doctor’s office. We evaluate patients for a $25 visit fee for a medical consultation.
We operate nationally, in every state, as well as Washington DC.
We operate through 4 medical groups and our medical team makes all clinical decisions. Unlicensed members of our team have no influence on clinical matters.
The AdvanaCare Inc. medical team provides care according to documented evidence-based clinical protocols that ensure we meet or surpass the standard of care. We create and maintain detailed medical records.
We understand that telemedicine is evolving and understandably state medical boards and doctors are cautious about telemedicine in general and may have concerns about direct to consumer telemedicine in particular. At the same time, patients increasingly expect more as the status quo of increased wait times and decreased access to affordable care is no longer acceptable to many Americans. We therefore appreciate the opportunity to engage and have active productive conversations with state regulators and medical boards to ensure we provide residents in each state with high quality care.
We are committed to operating in every state in a way that’s regulatory compliant. We provide video consultations in all states for clinical services that might result in a prescription for an antibiotic as we believe video meets the standard of care in these clinical situations. In other clinical situations, we believe the standard of care can be met with an asynchronous store-and-forward format, whereby the patient answers a structured and dynamic intake form. In states that require synchronous live video via regulation / laws / guidance, regardless of clinical situation, we only use video.
In both cases of live video or asynchronous store-and-forward format, either the AdvanaCare Inc. team or the patient can engage and communicate via secure messaging.
The core regulatory challenge for the AdvanaCare Inc. team is it’s not always clear what each state requires. The reason is that either the law isn’t clear because it has room for interpretation, or the law doesn’t speak to the key issues. In addition, within a single state we might experience differing views among members of a single state regulator, or experience reluctance from state regulators to give clear guidance. This makes the expectations and requirements less clear. With the technology platform our team has created, the good news is once we have a clear understanding of what’s required in a state, we can implement it overnight.
Since 2015, we’ve been and continue to be focused and obsessed at providing all Americans access to affordable primary care services. We’re an online health care company and medical group enabled by technology.
So if you’re a state regulator or medical board representative reading this, we would welcome and encourage a chance to discuss and understand what your state requires or an opportunity for us to explain the specifics of what we’re doing in your state.
Please contact me at [email protected]
Dave Metzger
Chief Clinical Officer