The idea behind Concierge Key Health is that consumers willing to pay extra will get certain privileges, including a more personalized, pleasant visit and fast-tracked access to physician specialists, urgent care clinics and hospitals. In preparation for its launch starting with 12 cities this fall, founder and Chief Executive Robert Grant told the Business Journal the company has tapped veteran hospital executive Richard Afable as a senior adviser.
Afable, who serves as president and chief executive of St. Joseph Hoag Health in Irvine and executive vice president of St. Joseph Health in Southern California, will retire from those roles in December. Erik Wexler, chief executive of Providence Health & Services’ Los Angeles region, replaces Afable. Wexler will also oversee parent company Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health’s 14 hospitals in Southern California as a single region comprised of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. Providence St. Joseph has 50 hospitals across seven states.
“I spent the first 17 years [of my career] as a practicing physician … and the second half on the institutional side—equal experience on both sides,” said Afable. “What [Concierge] really is is a platform for individualized care, and that’s what the hospital platform is, for individualized, customized care.”
Afable said his full-time work remains with Providence St. Joseph and St. Joseph Hoag Health, and that he will focus more of his time on Concierge starting Jan. 1.
The coming together of Afable, who has largely spent his time with nonprofit health systems, and a private pay-focused platform like Concierge Key isn’t weird, according to Grant.
“I think it’s fantastic. He’s going to bring a wealth of knowledge on the institutional side of healthcare.”
Annual fees are $3,000 for individuals and $5,000 for families with up to three children under age 26. More than three children can enroll in the family plan for $1,000 per additional child.
Newport Beach-based Concierge Key will roll out its mobile app in 12 locations on Oct. 1: OC, New York, Miami, Denver, Dallas, San Francisco Bay Area, Kansas City, Chicago, Washington D.C., L.A., Philadelphia and Phoenix.
It targets nationwide expansion next year.
Membership is free during the beta testing phase.
Convenience
Grant, who said the average wait time for a new patient to see a doctor is approximately 24 days, said the app is designed to enable patients to expedite the process of connecting with specialty physicians.
“The dissatisfaction and the long wait … It’s like being stuck on [Interstate] 405, and we created [toll road state route] 73,” joked Grant. He said the best comparison of the convenience that Concierge Key offers is the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry programs, where for $85 to $100, passengers can avoid security lines, full-body scanners, and removal of electric items and shoes.
“We are not a concierge service for medicine, but for speed,” he said, noting the platform does not provide practice services, such as billing.
Members will have access to physicians in internal medicine, cardiology, ENT, pediatrics, psychiatry, orthopedics, dermatology, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, hematology/oncology, dentistry and OB-GYN.
The platform plans to enroll up to 2,000 physicians nationwide. Doctors invited to participate in the program are faculty-level physicians who are members of the World Physicians Organization, a platform owned by Newport Beach-based investment firm Strathspey Crown Holdings LLC.
Physician applicants must be board-certified in their practicing specialty and faculty members, which include board membership in a medical society or having had journalistic publication or made podium presentations. A $200 application fee is required.
Strathspey physicians—who are also investors of the investment firm—are automatically vetted and approved to participate as members of the organization.
All About Strathspey
While Concierge was established by the same founding investors of Strathspey (SCH-AEON), it is independently capitalized and isn’t a subsidiary of Strathspey, according to a Strathspey spokesperson. She added Strathspey has no ownership interest in Concierge, but will receive royalty payments from Concierge.
Strathspey invests in private-pay healthcare businesses. The renaming in April reflects the biggest name in its portfolio, Alphaeon Corp. in Irvine—of which SCH-AEON owns 76%. Its portfolio also includes social media and clean-energy related companies.
SCH-AEON and Concierge Key have the same leadership team. Grant is chairman of SCH-AEON and was co-founder and chief executive of Alphaeon before stepping down last year. Vikram Malik, who previously served as vice chairman of investment banking and global head of medical technology at Deutsche Bank, is chief financial officer of Concierge and a managing partner at SCH-AEON.
Strathspey was built on money raised from physician investors. The original focus was to grow Alphaeon, which provides products and services not covered by health insurance. Both companies underwent restructuring last year when Alphaeon couldn’t bring an initial public offering to market. New investor Dental Innovations BVBA in Antwerp, Belgium, was brought in; it provided the fund that helped Alphaeon regain control, resulting in Strathspey being the majority shareholder. Alphaeon’s now a neurotoxin research and development company.
