Since our founding, Curai Health has had a clear mission: to scale access to best-in-class medical expertise and care to every single person on the planet. Making healthcare more accessible and affordable has been my focus since launching Curai. In service of this goal, today I’m proud to share that Curai is partnering with Priority Health, a nationally recognized nonprofit health plan, to provide free virtual care to Michigan residents without health insurance.
For the rest of 2024, we are offering free virtual care to an estimated 400,000 people in Michigan. This partnership with Priority Health is a major step in expanding access to care. Our asynchronous, AI-powered model makes us uniquely positioned to ensure that each patient receives the attention and care that they deserve.
This announcement comes at a time where more people are losing health coverage as Medicaid rolls are cut and unemployment rates increase. Nationally, the share of the U.S. population without health insurance increased to 8.2% during the first quarter of this year – that’s about 27 million people.
When people are uninsured, they often forgo medical care due to cost constraints, leading to worse health conditions. At least half of the uninsured population in Michigan reported there was a time during the past year when they needed to see a doctor but could not because of the cost. By partnering with one of Michigan's largest health plans, we’re tackling this challenge head on by eliminating the financial hurdles to accessing care.
Everyone should be able to schedule a visit with their clinician at their convenience, instead of waiting for days or even weeks to get an appointment. The best care is achieved when patients can speak with their clinician as often as they need, with no barriers and no wait time.
With Curai, patients can connect with clinicians asynchronously at any time, and we’re seeing that as a result, they’re accessing care frequently. The average Curai patient has over six visits a year, compared to the national average of 1.8 in-person visits with a clinician over one year. By removing the barriers, patients are more likely to receive medical care when they need it.
This kind of care is what everyone in America deserves, but the current state of our healthcare system makes it too expensive and complicated for most patients. Curai’s model is demonstrating that AI can provide the unlock to bring care to patients everywhere in a form and price point that works to them. We are grateful for Priority Health’s sponsorship to expand access to care in their home state.
Partnerships like this one with Priority Health can strengthen and deepen health plans’ reach with their members too. Curai offers unparalleled cost savings for plans and enhanced accessibility for patients, which can in turn improve outcomes as patients are able to receive high-quality care around the clock.
This is the virtual-first future, and we look forward to continuing this path with other health plans eager to be part of this change, too.
For more information, visit: priorityhealth.com/freevirtual
