Nick Hanauer, a lead Qliance investor, spoke passionately at Seattle University on Wednesday night about new venture companies and cited Qliance as an example of a great start-up. Speaking to a room of nearly 130, Mr. Hanauer described a few particular attributes of attractive start-ups; what to look for and what to avoid. Speaking specifically about Qliance, Mr. Hanauer articulated why he is so excited about the possibilities Qliance presents to the healthcare industry.

See what xconomy.com had to say about Mr. Hanauer's speech!

Many local employers in the south Puget Sound region are showing their support for Qliance -and are not afraid to say so. The Green Room and Partners, both production companies with healthcare concerns, spoke with the Puget Sound Business Journal about the possibilities Qliance presents. By pairing Qliance with an Health Savings Account (HSA) or a high-deductible traditional insurance plan, employers, workers and individuals alike are able to experience the benefits of primary care, while sill saving money.

Check out the latest Qliance article!

October 13, 2008

Qliance fans blog at Livejournal.com

Qliance is making positive impressions and keeping people healthy all over Seattle! A Qliance member recently blogged about her reasons to join Qliance experience and is eager to share with others her philosophy of why Qliance works so well for her.

Check out her post at: http://neevita.livejournal.com/417865.html

October 6, 2008

      Qliance partners with Carol.com

Qliance is proud to annouce a partnership with Carol.com, an online marketplace where consumers can shop, compare and purchase healthcare packages provided by a variety of large, medium and specialty medical facilities in their communities. Carol.com will introduce Qliance's direct primary care practice to consumers who are shopping for healthcare providers based on quality, service and price transparency.

May 15, 2008

Qliance Expands Services and Adds Physicians

Two well-respected Seattle internists, Dr. Susan Casabona and Dr. Lili Sacks, will be joining Qliance this summer. Both physicians come to Qliance from Minor & James. Although they have practiced primary care there for 21 and 15 years respectively, they were attracted to Qliance by its direct practice model which enables them to spend more time with each patient and provide better access and service by operating outside of the insurance infrastructure.

"There has been constant pressure to spend less time with patients, see more patients in a day, accept less qualified support staff and fill out more forms for the insurance companies," says Dr. Casabona. "I have tried to insulate my patients from these changes as much as possible but it has been increasingly difficult. I see no end to these negative pressures driven by insurance companies. It is still hard to leave a clinic where I have worked so long but I want to get back to care driven by the patients’ needs. Qliance offers that opportunity in a whole new approach to primary care."

"Qliance is committed to recreating a kind of medical care that has become an endangered species—a true partnership between patient and doctor without third party interference," adds Dr. Sacks. "I am proud to be able to do what I love, and to contribute to health care reform at the same time."

Drs. Casabona and Sacks will be offering a new package of services at Qliance called Qliance 2. In addition to the core Qliance primary care service which includes unrestricted, unhurried office visits seven days a week, Qliance 2 patients will receive on-site coordination of care by their personal physician if and when they are admitted to the hospital (Swedish Medical Center).

March 26, 2008

Direct Medical Practices, "The Un-insurance Solution to the Primary Care Medical Mess"

An insightful and at times humorous presentation by Dr. Garrison Bliss (founder and President of Qliance Medical Group of WA) to health insurance brokers at the WA Association of Health Underwriters' 2008 Symposium about the forces that are driving the health care crisis in this country and how the simple economic model of direct primary care practices may hold the key to reviving the ailing industry.

Dr. Garrison Bliss

March 3, 2008

Harvard Medical School weekly concludes new Qliance direct primary care model "has the potential to grow significantly, to serve millions of people instead of thousands"

Many primary care physicians are now finding themselves in hot water. Declining reimbursement for evaluation and management has undercut the economics of providers who cannot also bill for a complement of procedures. Coordination of care remains difficult with high patient turnover and the absence of standardized personal health records. A lack of time for physicians to stay abreast of new clinical guidelines has contributed to a tendency toward lowering the threshold for specialist referrals.

One response for making ends meet has been to increase the volume of patients, squeezing appointment slots down to as little as 10 to 15 minutes each. Other actions have been retirement, an exodus to specialties, or even the addition of minor yet higher-margin interventions, from liquid nitrogen–based wart removal to heel densitometry to annual EKGs.

As is frequently the case in health care, good ideas to change the structure of primary care abound, but vested parties are fragmented, and physicians and nurses struggle to find the wherewithal to assume leadership roles.

View full article: Direct Primary Care: A New Brew in Seattle

March 1, 2008

Qliance is proud to announce our partnership with the Washington Breast and Cervical Health Program and Colon Health Screening.

The Breast and Cervical Health Program (BCHP) provides free breast and cervical cancer screening for low-income women.

Eligibility criteria: If you live in Clallam, Jefferson, King, or Kitsap County, are Age 40 to 65 years old and have a household income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty level. Also, if you are uninsured or have insurance that doesn’t cover the full cost of health checkups or services like mammogram or Pap test. Funding for colon cancer screening is also available for both men and women who meet criteria similar to the above.

What this means to Qliance patients: If you qualify, the BCHP funds will cover the laboratory costs associated with your pap smear, colposcopy and colon health screening. It will also cover the cost of a mammogram if you are due for one. As always, Qliance patients are not charged additional fees for the costs associated with the visit or exams/specimen collections.

Information for Outside Providers: Qliance is able to offer fully-funded colposcopy services to your BCHP patients. Please contact us for simple referral.

For more information, call Qliance at (206) 913-4700, or visit the program home page at: http://www.metrokc.gov/health/bchp/

Janury 27, 2008

Qliance featured in Seattle Business Monthly 

Concierge Care: Qliance is the latest in a new line of flat-fee health-care practices that aim to control costs while improving patient care.

View full article: Members-only Health Care

January 24, 2008

"Who Killed Marcus Welby?" by Norm Wu, Qliance CEO

To support FareStart, a commendable non-profit organization dedicated to helping Seattle's homeless by training them for careers in the culinary arts, Qliance purchased a full page in The Stranger weekly during their annual Strangercrombie holiday auction. Entitled “Who Killed Marcus Welby?,” this half op-ed, half feature story discusses the demise of the caring family doctor who always had as much time as his patients needed. He was so wonderfully portrayed from 1969 to 1976 in the popular ABC television series Marcus Welby, MD. The article goes on to describe how Qliance is bringing back the Marcus Welby doctor by forming a direct relationship with our patients.

If you’re interested in Farestart, you may want to try their restaurant for lunch the next time you visit our downtown Seattle practice. It’s located just a few blocks away and all restaurant proceeds support their program. It’s one of our favorite places for lunch with great food at reasonable prices. We were delighted that they were able to cater our launch event this past November.

View full article: Who Killed Marcus Welby?

January 21, 2008

Dr. Garrison Bliss on the genesis of his vision for patient-centered care

Last December, Dr. Garrison Bliss, Qliance Medical Group President, accepted the Pioneer in Medical Practice Award from Consumers for Heatlhcare Choices. In this just released video, Dr. Bliss describes the genesis of his vision for patient-centered care using a direct practice model and how Qliance will take that to the next level.

View video: CHCC Website, Video of Award Acceptance Speech 

November 5, 2007

Qliance provides free health screening at the Alive! Expo

As part of Qliance Medical Group’s commitment to public outreach, Qliance physicians, nurse practitioners and medical staff conducted free health screenings for attendees at the Alive!Expo health fair on November 3 and 4 at the Seattle Center. These screenings included blood pressure, random blood sugar, height, weight and body mass index (BMI) measurements. “We found quite a few cases where people had high blood pressure or elevated blood sugar levels, a possible sign of diabetes. Early detection and treatment of such potentially chronic medical conditions can have a significant impact on one’s health and longevity,” said Norm Wu, Qliance Medical Management CEO.

Dr. Erika Bliss, Qliance Family Medicine, gave a presentation to Expo attendees on how to get the most out of the healthcare system. Her tips and techniques were well appreciated.

November 2, 2007

700 direct practice patients join Qliance from Seattle Medical Associates

Approximately 700 Seattle Medical Associates patients have already enrolled at Qliance Medical Group, effective November 1. Most of these individuals were patients of Dr. Garrison Bliss, Qliance co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, while he practiced at Seattle Medical Associates. Dr. Bliss moved his former practice to Qliance to focus on growing the organization while making sure that the needs of his patients are well taken care of.

To accommodate the special needs of some of these patients, Qliance has established a limited new service called Qliance Primary Care Plus which includes the core Qliance Primary Care plus on-site hospitalization coordination, a greater number of in-office lab tests included in the monthly fee, and personal care by Dr. Garrison Bliss. Primary Care Plus has a higher monthly fee than Qliance Primary Care and is currently closed to new patients due to limited capacity. A number of former patients of Dr. Bliss have chosen the core Qliance Primary Care service for their needs.

November 2, 2007

Governor Christine Gregoire and Senator Chris Marr speak at Qliance launch reception 

Qliance Medical Group celebrated its recent launch with a reception attended by over one hundred Washington State legislators and officials, strategic partners, investors and staff, plus many representatives from the Seattle area physician and hospital community.

Dr. Garrison Bliss, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, welcomed guests and discussed the Qliance goal of creating “Marcus Welby on steroids – the 21st century equivalent of the family doctor and medical home.” He went on to say that the entire Qliance organization is committed to “improving the quality, availability and humanity of primary care in Washington.”

Dr. Erika Bliss, Qliance Family Medicine, introduced two Qliance patients who discussed how the access and medical care at Qliance is making a difference for them.

Senator Chris Marr, co-sponsor of the Innovative Primary Health Care Delivery Senate Bill 5958 that supports the Qliance model for primary care, described how “direct practice medicine is very elegant in its premise of putting doctors and patients at the center of the health care equation while reducing cost. Even more compelling is how this high touch primary care model works to improve the efficacy of preventive care.” Senator Marr concluded his remarks by saying that, “This piece of health care policy improves quality and cost, without additional government intervention and regulation, and on top of that, without requiring additional state funding. As a state policy maker, that’s like the trifecta.”

Governor Christine Gregoire discussed the need for innovation and risk taking in serving the uninsured and especially the under-insured. “Our theme is: drive up safety, drive up quality, drive down costs—that’s what Qliance is all about. So what you are doing here with your vision is really what we’ve been trying to embrace. But we can’t achieve it if we simply look at it through the old same lenses that we’ve had historically,” said the Governor. “What Qliance has as a vision and a model is to allow doctors to do what they love and what they feel passionate about, to give patients like the two from whom we have heard tonight what they so richly deserve at an affordable cost and with high quality. It is patient safety. It is driving down costs. So I come simply to say, thank you to those who are investing. Thank you to those of you who are providing the care. Thank you to those of you who are getting the care.”

Senator Chris Marr

Governor Christine Gregoire

October 25, 2007

Qliance featured in Seattle Magazine

When Chau Luu, a Seattle software company operations manager woke up with a nasty stomach flu last spring, she was reluctant to call her large mainstream health-care provider, dreading a half-hour wait to see a doctor for five minutes. But Luu saw few alternatives to the get-them-in-and-move-them-out style of medicine that dominates the health-care landscape, until she heard of Qliance Medical Group.

View full article: Doc Shop

October 19, 2007

Consumers for Healthcare Choices will honor Dr. Garrison Bliss at their second annual awards banquet on December 2, 2007

Dr. Bliss is a board certified physician with 30 years of practice in primary care. His Seattle Medical Associates was the second practice in America to test a monthly fee "concierge medicine" approach to primary care. His new company, Qliance, is bringing the same principles to working people, including those who are uninsured. He is a past president and chairman of the Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design, and widely considered the leading voice for patient-financed medicine in the United States.

View: CHCC Website

September 29, 2007

Qliance joins the ADA and the fight against diabetes

Qliance providers and staff were participated in the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) "StepOut!" event in Seward Park, Seattle. Providers and staff administered free health screenings for more than 100 people during the four hour event and raised over $2,800 for the cause. Thank you to everyone who supported both Qliance and the ADA in their fight against diabetes.

View: ADA Website 

August 5, 2007

Qliance featured in The Entrepreneurial MD

When you have to catch a physician for a few minutes on a Sunday morning for an interview, you suspect he’s a busy guy. When he is a full-time clinical practitioner, prominent thought leader and a serial entrepreneur, you’re not surprised.

View full article: The New Face of Primary Care Thru the Eyes of an Entrepreneurial Physician: Dr. Garrison Bliss

July 4, 2007

Qliance featured in the Seattle Weekly

A couple of years ago, Orange Cab driver Jagjit Singh, who lacked medical insurance, flew to his home country of India for a hernia operation, for which he paid $300 rather than the $16,000 he would have been charged in the U.S. Recently, Singh joined Qliance, a new boutique medical practice in downtown Seattle set to open on July 23. In fact, he says, so did roughly half of Orange Cab’s drivers after hearing Qliance’s pitch at the company’s offices one day

View full article: Qliance Offers Low-Income Patients a Level of Doctor Access Once Reserved for CEOs and Other Big Spenders

May 25, 2007

Qliance featured in the Puget Sound Business Journal

Critics carp that doctors practicing so-called concierge medicine cater only to the rich, but several Seattle physicians are about to open a monthly fee practice aimed at offering affordable basic medical care to most everyone.

View full article: Qliance Medical Group Becomes the Latest Practice to do Business with Patients, Not Insurers

May 3, 2007

Qliance Senate Bill 5958 is signed by Governor Christine Gregoire! On May 2, 2007, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5958, sponsored by Senator Karen Keiser, into law!

This bill is a watershed event for direct primary care practices such as Qliance Medical Group. Entitled “Creating Innovative Primary Healthcare Delivery,” it acknowledges that primary care practices that bypass insurance by charging patients a direct monthly fee to avoid the high overhead costs and restrictive care associated with insurance reimbursement are not insurance companies, health carriers, health maintenance organizations nor health care services contractors. As such, it enables direct primary care providers to offer affordable prices for high quality, high access unhurried care, while providing substantial consumer protection.

The bill was endorsed by the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, the Washington State Medical Association, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Washington Artists Health Insurance Project and hundreds of individual patients and small business owners. Kudos to the Legislature and the Governor for their many efforts to help make quality healthcare accessible to all!