Vera's mission to create a healthcare revolution is picking up steam. GeekWire spoke with CEO Ryan Schmid about Vera's fee-for-value model of primary care and the raising of an additional $5 million in funding to support the launch of six more clinics by the end of 2018. “The vision is to create a health revolution, and part of that is both helping those individuals but then fundamentally transforming the way that healthcare is paid for and delivered, so folks’ outcomes improve and they save more money,” Schmid said.

The nuts and bolts of Vera’s system are fairly straightforward. Like having a gym membership, patients whose employers contract with Vera can use the on-site clinic at their workplace as much or as little as they want for the same price. The fee is often covered or subsidized by the employer. As a result, Schmid said, doctors and health coaches spend less time running between appointments and filling out paperwork and more time with patients, giving them the opportunity to have more in-depth care that gets at the root problem of health concerns.

“The gift we can provide one another by pausing and hearing one another, empathetically, truly — it’s soul-piercing. It’s a tremendous gift,” he said. “You’re able to do so much more with that patient because you’re not so worried about the billing code for that patient.”