Charles J. Willey, M.D.
CEO, Tribus
Over my nearly 40-year career as an internist in St. Louis, I’ve had the great fortune of practicing in a clinical and economic context that has allowed me to have very rewarding experiences taking care of my patients and building many lasting relationships. It has been frustrating to watch our industry evolve, pushed by regulation, bureaucracy, consolidation, new poorly conceived technologies, adverse economics, and an increasingly complex but poorly supported patient population. I’ve seen colleagues become disillusioned and patients get lost in the shuffle of an increasingly complex system.
Where others have become cynical, I am able to remain optimistic and energetic for my work. I have more conviction now than ever before, and the reason is clear. My clinical/economic context has me, with my colleagues, responsible for not only the clinical outcome but the cost of care as well. In an appropriately funded and long-term contract, we literally get paid to keep patients happy, healthy, active, and energetic for life. Our compensation is very well aligned with achieving health outcomes and eliminating inefficiencies.
Having built and grown several highly successful risk-based medical groups over the years one thing has remained true… the secret sauce is having a business and care model to support a different approach to delivering care. A model where I’m not hamstrung by the activity-based transactional fee-for-service system that continues to plague our industry. By putting healthcare decisions back in the control of the physicians who know the patients best (and paying them for this differentiated level of influence) we’ve been able to prove that you can practice the highest quality medicine, with top patient satisfaction outcomes, in a long-term sustainable economic model. It’s why physicians managing the total cost of care is the future.
Sustainable economics, right care for patients, less bureaucracy, better quality of life for patient and provider… all sounds great, right? That’s why I’m staking my legacy on leading a new approach with Lumeris called Tribus, brought to market to scale this proven approach to patient care at a national level. I’m committed to waking up every day to work with other physicians who are interested in taking back control over their practice and their patients’ health. I will have failed in my mission if I don’t see physicians experience the same level of professional satisfaction that I have enjoyed.
Whether you are employed by a health system or remain an independent physician, the model we built with Tribus can help you and your organization transform to this professionally very rewarding method of care and financing. Time is of the essence. Waiting will not make the situation any better (it might actually make it worse). If you are interested in understanding how Tribus may shift the paradigm for you and your practice, let’s talk. Our patients’ health is too important to wait for others to create the solution for us!
Learn more about Tribus at tribus.lumeris.com.